Angel's Punishment
by yellowermine
Summary: Faye's avenging Spike's death killing one by one the members of RD, unaware that he's still alive and leading the RD. But even Spike doesn't know that the killer he calls Nemesis actually is the same loud cunning woman he once lived with. SpikeFaye
1. Prologue: L'angelo della vendetta

Disclaimer: I own a PC, a TV, several DVD and CD, tons of school textbooks, and a cat that apparently still has no gender… but I do NOT own Cowboy Bebop!

Notes: just three little things: 1)sorry for the grammar... you know English not my first language. 2)if you flame LEAVE me your e-mail address. 3)read, enjoy and REVIEW!

**_Angel's_****_Punishment_**

Prologue: L'angelo della vendetta

_2071, Tharsis city- Mars_

:Ding-dong:

"Damn it! Not now…"

"Just a minute, babe… I'm sending whoever it is back to hell, and when I'll be back I'm taking you to heaven…" the blonde man said getting up from the bed and putting on a black satin robe

"Don't keep me waiting too much, Clive…" half said half moaned the naked redhead who was lying on the bed, blue eyes sparkling with lust as she watched her man leave the bedroom.

Clive went through the hallway, not even bothering to turn on the lights; the sound of his bare feet on the cold marble floor was the only noise audible in the flat. He reached the door and without taking a look through the spy-hole he opened it, coming face to face with an unknown woman.

She was dressed in a black leather motorbike-rider jacket; her faded blue jeans were slung low on her hips revealing the smooth pale skin of her belly, and she was wearing knee-high black boots over the jeans. Her emerald irises stood out against the black eyeliner she wore, her chin-length dark purple hair contrasted the porcelain white color of her face, and her bloody red lips showed an impish smile.

"Is it Clive Martins' humble dwelling?" she asked with a sultry voice

"Yes, Miss… and I am Clive. How can I help you?" he replied quickly, his grey eyes looking straight into hers. He didn't know what it was, but there was something about that woman that gave him goose bumps all over his body. Being nervous was something that didn't happen so frequently to a professional killer of the Red Dragon Syndicate, especially in front of a young lady that probably had seen guns just in action movies.

"Do you know how to get a dead man back to life, Mr. Martins?" her smirk still on her scarlet lips. Clive stared at her, it was impossible to understand if she was serious or if it was only a joke… her smile was unreadable, almost enigmatic.

_'This girl's brain is completely fucked up…'_

"I- I don't think so, Miss… but maybe you need help, I can call you a taxi if-"

"Thanks, Mr. Martins, but I'm ok… I got what I came here for" the dark haired woman cut short letting her smile fade.

"You sure, Miss?"

"Give Vicious my best regards…" her right hand reached for something that was on the wall next to the door, his eyes widened and followed her rapid movement noticing just then the sword that was resting against the door-frame, but it was already too late even to think about escaping.

The sharp blade of the katana embedded itself into his stomach tearing apart every vital organ that was in its way; a rivulet of dark red blood escaped his lips along with an agonized groan of pain. Clive took two steps backward; his shaky hands gripped the decorated hilt of the Japanese weapon as he fell on his knees. The blade had pierced his abdomen and came out on his back, the pain was unbearable.

"You fucking bitch…" he whispered, spiting blood out of his mouth onto the polished floor, his eyes were wide open and bloodshot, beads of sweat were starting to cover his forehead, stopping on his blonde brows. His eyelids shut tightly as two gunshot echoed into the room neutralizing the cameras that were placed on the white walls; the green eyed woman put her Glock back into its holster and went past the doorway to stand in front of the dying syndicate member.

She crouched down next to him and her slender fingers closed themselves around the hilt of the sword, her gaze shifted to his pained expression and with a turn of her wrist she made the blade twist in the wound and his eyes shot open.

"Didn't anybody teach you to never insult a lady?" she teased

"P-please… I-I'll give you anything-" he begged in a low whisper

"Don't waste your last breath in vain, _Clive…"_ her grip on the katana tightened as she pulled it out from his guts, hearing his choked scream and looking at his pain-contorted features

"Farewell…" her silken hair swirled as she stood up and turned around, her left hand picked up the raven black sheath from the ground and she replaced the precious weapon in it.

The violet haired woman speed up towards the door and closed it quickly as her feet touched the floor out of the flat; she took a deep breath and regained her composure, her heart slowed down its beating and she could almost feel the adrenaline dissolve into her veins.

Her feet carried her along the hallways, down the stairs, till she reached the exit; but before she could get past the sliding doors she heard the high-pitched voice of a woman scream bloody murder. Her legs froze, she felt like her body was ten times heavier, it was like somebody was gripping at her heart and squeezing it tightly.

_'He got what he deserved… he had to be punished'_ the cold female voice speaking in her mind reassured her. So, she swallowed that emotion between pity and guilt that was tormenting her, clenched the katana in her palm, and stepped out of the classy structure leaving behind all her fears, doubts, and morals.

For the first time in her lifetime she had killed in cold blood, for the first time she planned to execute somebody, and for the first time it wasn't for saving her own life. It was for revenge. And she knew it was just the beginning of a long list of killings; because now vengeance was the only reason of her life, and nothing or nobody could stop her thirst for revenge.

The woman reached hurriedly the black Ducati999 (newly stolen from somebody who didn't know how to choose a good alarm) that was parked few blocks form the one she was in; she zipped up her jacket, put on her black gloves and crash helmet and after getting on it, she started up the engine. As her motorbike shot down the streets at top speed, her mind was racing through her memories, trying to remember the shortest way to the herbal medicine shop in the Chinese part of the Martian town, the only place where she could go, now that she had left for good the old spaceship she called 'home'.

_'well, as long as he still wants me there after the mess I've done the last time…"_ she said to herself remembering how the shop, or what was left of it, looked after the gunfight between her and the men of the casino owner that kidnapped her.

As the minutes flew by, her green eyes stayed fixed on the road before her, and the roar of the motor under her was the only sound her ears were listening to; she wasn't paying attention to anything outside herself. Her five senses ignored the light and the sirens wailing of the police-cars that went past her, she wasn't aware of the cold air of the night hitting the exposed skin on her lower back, and she didn't even notice that she had unconsciously arrived at her destination

The old Chinese man was settling his wide selection of natural remedies on the shelves behind the counter when the clicking sound of heels reached his ears. His hands stilled but he didn't look back to see who it was, he already knew.

"Is there still room for a lost girl who has nowhere to go?" a soft female voice asked him. He could almost hear the smile in her tone; it had been over a year since he had heard from her, and by the difficult position in which she was the last time he had seen her, he thought that he would have never met her again, or at least not in this lifetime.

"There's always a room for a Chinese beauty such you're, Faye…" the old man replied turning to her with a full smile under his drooping moustaches. "But no more gunfight in here, ok?"

The dark haired woman smiled and walked to the counter placing the katana on it and reaching for a cigar, she put it between her lips and lit it with her Zippo… _his _Zippo. But he no longer could kick her ass for having stolen it, and even if it could seem strange, she wasn't so happy about it. She took another drag and slowly exhaled the smoke staring intently at the lighter between her fingers and trying to keep at bay all the feelings it evoked in her mind and heart.

"Where did you find this?" Zhang questioned pointing to the sword near his cash desk

"It's a long story…"

"Care to narrate it?"

"Maybe another time… I seriously need to take a nap, now" she said and stubbed out the cigar on the ashtray; her slender fingers gripped the katana as she moved towards the stairs in the back of the shop, but the old owner's voice stooped her

"I'm pretty good with that thing, you know… I had lived ten years in Japan before the gate accident, I left China with my father when my mother died and I spent lot of time practicing with the katana…" she couldn't help but notice how his voice quivered at the mention of his mother's death "ask me if you need some training… I'd be happy to give you a hand" he offered with a small smile

"Does this training include retiring to the highest mountain on Mars and spend there some years of my youth sweating blood to learn how to use a sword?" she inquired with an arched eyebrow staring into his sunglasses covered eyes. He laughed heartily to her preoccupied demeanor

"No, no… nothing like that, my girl. I have something special in store for you…" he reassured her patting her shoulder.

"Sure…" she replied going upstairs to her old room.

Faye opened the door and looked inside, everything was like she had left it; there were still some of her clothes scattered on the stripped bed, beer cans on the floor, her TV /computer, and all her CDs in a pile on the corner. She smiled. It was like being back to a year before, when she would spend all her time gambling, escaping from creditors, and seducing old dickheaded man just to run away with their money; when she still didn't remember anything from her past; when she still hadn't crossed roads with the Bebop and its crew… somehow she wished to go back to that time of her life when she was free of everything and everybody, she wanted to never had known what love is, to never had met Spike Spiegel…

The ex-bounty huntress shut the door behind her and letting her gun fall along with the Japanese weapon on her bed, she headed for the small bathroom. She opened the shower so that by the time she would be ready the water would have been at the right temperature, she undressed leaving all her clothes on the tiled floor. She had to wash them, even if they weren't stained with blood she felt the insane need to clean anything that she had on when she had killed that bastard.

She didn't understand why, but she felt dirty, and if she couldn't do anything for making the feeling go away from inside her, she surely could wash it on the outside. The emerald eyed woman finished undressing and stepped into the shower; the hot water cascading onto her smooth skin felt wonderful on her tired muscles, but couldn't do anything to stop the hot tears from falling, or to cover the heart-wrenching sobs that she let escape from her lips as she wrapped her arms around herself, wishing they were someone else's.

**A/N: **it's been sooooo long since last time I wrote something! Past months have been hell… when school was over and I thought I could finally relax, my house has practically became a building site… and it's not so simple concentrating when somebody is drilling on the wall of your room, or even next your room-- But since I couldn't write during the day I spent the nights planning this story out… it'll be 11 chapters long and I really hope I will find the time to write and be able to complete it…

I removed 'the real ballad of fallen angels' from the site, I seriously need to revise it and then maybe I'll put it up again…

I hope you enjoyed the first chap… the next will be set three years after this and-

Shin: I refuse to be the Red Dragon's leader! I'm NOT that kind of man and I won't-

Me: stop being such a fussy, Shin…

Shin: no! I just want to retire in a cave and be an hermit; living my life contemplating the beauties of nature… I'm not a killer! Besides, you don't have any rights on me!

Me: I'm the author…

Shin: but you DO NOT owe me!

Me: I borrowed you, and I can do whatever I want with you! You should thank me for giving you a part in a fic… so stop complaining and go back to your room before I change my mind and give Lin your role!

Shin: B- but Lin's dead!

Me: who said that?

Shin: but-

Me: let me finish this… we'll discuss about my thaumaturgic powers later…

Shin: but-

Me: LIN! I have an offer to-

Shin: NO! It's ok, I'll wait…

Me: good boy… getting back to the point, as I was saying before this little interruption, in the next chap we'll meet the man who has led the RD for the last three years, while it was waiting for its legitimate leader to get back on his feet…

Shin: please, if you're going to review, work for a good cause and ask her to leave me and my brother out of-

Me: SHIN!

Shin: forget whatever I said! Just review and see you in the next chap… bye! --runs off--


	2. Old hopes, new worries

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Cowboy Bebop, or its characters… Maho Izawa isn't mine either, she belongs to Gainax and the staff of KareKano- His and Her circumstances… I just love her character and had to put her in somehow

Notes: this chapter focuses on Shin, it's a bit boring but necessary… just read and enjoy

BTW this is set after three years after the Prologue…

**_Angel's Punishment_**

Chapter 1: Old hopes and new worries

_2074, Red Dragon HQ- Tharsis city, Mars _

A young man in his twenties was sitting in his huge office, his head was resting on his forearms and he seemed to be asleep. But actually his mind was anything but sleeping…

Shin was trying to shut off the world outside him, he just wanted sometime on his own; it hadn't been his choice from the start to become who he now was, he just didn't have the makings for being a leader, in fact he didn't even have what it took to be a killer…

_'If only Spike was here…' _

He really missed his friend, his mentor; if the green haired man was there, he wouldn't have to do it all by himself, and mostly he wouldn't be the one who had to lead a crime organization… Shin's mind was clouded by thoughts of all kinds, too much had happened in the last three years, and all the worries he had been repressing were now coming back to the surface…

His hopes in Spike's awakening from his comatose state were starting to fade away, just to be replaced with skepticism and uncertainty. The negative results in chasing Nemesis were ridiculing the once fearful Red Dragons in front of the other syndicates, and it was a frustrating situation for all its members… in ages of history never had a single woman killed so many professionals, practically disappearing without leaving any tracks after every murder…

And then there was Maho… she was one of the few people that he had known since his childhood and who was still alive, and in a sort of way unconnected with the syndicate. Shin had always loved her like a sister, but in the past few years their relationship had developed in something more than brotherly love, he had fallen hard for her, and the feelings were mutual. He was sure that she was the right one, the one with whom he wanted to have a family, but at the moment he just didn't have the time for those sort of things…

However, fate had never been so kind to him, and here he was sitting in an ultra expensive leather armchair, replaying in his mind the events that had occurred earlier that morning…

Flashback +

The red rays of dawn entered from the window lightening the dark room, and disturbing the quiet sleep of the two figures entangled in the sheets of the bed. Shin let a small, satisfied smile appear on his thin lips and tightened his hold on the woman sleeping next to him; he heard her sighing happily and her back arched to be even closer to his warm body.

"Morning, love…" he ventured placing a gentle kiss on her raven hair

"Morning…" Maho replied quietly, she was determined to tell him about her newfound little problem… well, their little problem

"Shin?"

"Yeah…"

"I'm pregnant…" she didn't mean to sound so cold, but she wasn't the type of woman who beat around the bush for hours before spitting out what's been going on in her mind… she was a practical woman, and he knew that, he loved her for that. There were a few minutes of silence before she could heard his slightly trembling voice asking

"B-but weren't you taking the pill?"

"Yeah, but-" he didn't let her finish.

"I thought it was fail-safe…"

"Shit happens…" she trailed off feeling a bit saddened, surely she knew that it wasn't the best moment for a kid, but she kind of expected him to be more content with the news; she never cried over anything but right now she could sense the tears burning behind her eyelids.

A relaxed chuckle waked her from her gloomy reverie and she felt Shin's hot breath in her ear.

"That sounded like something Spike would say…" she smiled sensing his change towards the situation.

"I'm really curious to meet this infamous friend of yours…" Maho replied, she had heard lots of stories about this Spike, and Shin seemed truly attached to him… maybe even more than he was to his dead brother.

"Maybe one day you will…"

End Flashback +

A baby… how was he supposed to be a good father, when he didn't even have one? How could he think he would be able to protect him, when he wasn't even capable enough to defend his own men, who surely were far more skilled than a baby? And what if something happened to Maho?

Shin lifted his head up and was about to hit it on the hard wood of the office desk, with the hope that all his thoughts would fade away, when the hurried knocks on the large door stopped him.

"Come in!" the green eyed man regained its composure on the large chair and stared as the door flung open to reveal one of his more loyal men.

"What's the problem, Marcus?" he asked noticing the upset look on the man's face.

"Sir, Lewis-…" his answer was cut off by another man, visibly younger, entering the room in a rush; his face flushed from the run.

"Sorry sir, but it's important…" he managed to say breathing heavily.

"I believe Marcus has something important to say, too, Ben" Shin replied in a calm tone that surprised even himself

"Go on…"

"It's Nemesis, sir… she killed Lewis. Our men found his body into the pool at his house… the water had turned red with blood; he had a large cut on his stomach, but he didn't die on the strike… she had probably let him bleed to death…" the Dragon's violet eyes darkened with rage as he pronounced the last sentence

"How's Leila?" the leader asked in a low, saddened voice.

"She's doing fine… she knew that something could happen to her brother. She just wished it wasn't so soon."

Silence fell into the office, even the last arrival didn't dare to break the mournful moment. The eyes of the three men were all looking down, their minds linked with the same thoughts of fear, anger and longing to catch whoever was making them feel so hopeless…

"Shin?" Mark didn't bother to refer to him with the usual _sir_… right now he was talking to a friend, not to his leader.

"Hmm?"

"Do you think we will ever get her?"

"I hope so, Mark… you can't even imagine how I want this to end."

The young man looked at his leader, he would have never thought that he could be so kindhearted; sure he was new in the syndicate, it wasn't passed even a year since he had joined, but when he thought about their leader what came to his mind was the image of a cold-hearted killer, somebody who didn't give a shit about anybody, and much less about his subordinates.

But the man before him was the opposite of that image he had in his mind… after all now that he noticed, he wasn't even so much older than himself, maybe just a few years. It was a pity that he had to give him that news, because he was sure that from now on, things would change for the Red Dragons, and he couldn't quite put his finger on how they would change… in a better way, or in a worse one?

"So, Ben, what is it that you need to tell me?" Shin's voice broke up the stream of his thoughts.

"The Dragon's hospital just called, sir… It's about Mr. Spiegel."

"What's wrong with him!" Shin asked worriedly standing up from the chair he was sitting on and pressing the palms of his hands on the smooth surface of his desk. Ben stepped back, startled by his leader sudden movements; he waved his hands in front of him and shook his head.

"No, no… nothing wrong, sir. They just said that Mr. Spiegel has woken up, they said he was kinda confused and he wanted to leave the hospital… actually he even attacked one of his guards. They tried to calm him down and explain, but he wouldn't listen, so they had to put him back to sleep."

"They have done what?" he shouted visibly furious about the doctors' decision

"T-they said that before falling unconscious he asked about you, sir… he wanted to talk to you, face to face" Ben finished quickly his speech swallowing the lump that had formed in his throat, and looking away in order to avoid the glare of his superior.

When he didn't hear a reply coming from Shin, he shifted his gaze on Mark, who now had an enigmatic smile plastered on his lips. When his ears caught the sound of rustling clothes he instinctively turned his head back on the figure behind the desk; Shin was putting on a characteristic black trench coat of the RD, and as soon as he finished with the coat he pressed a finger to the phone and said in a deadly serious voice:

"Ashley, I need a car… now." he didn't even bother to hear her answer knowing it was a positive one and promptly reached the door.

"Thanks for the good news, Ben… it was about damn time," he said to his man with a boyish smirk.

"N-no problem, sir…" was his quick reply.

"Mark, I want a complete rundown about every thing we know about Nemesis on my desk in the least amount of time possible… we need to refill Spike about whatever happened in his absence."

"Sure thing, sir…"

"And stop calling me that, Mark… that title doesn't belong to me anymore."

**A/N: **well, first of all I wanted to thanks Kendra Luher, Zottie, Ninalee-chan, and Bells of Requiem for reviewing, I'm glad you liked the Prologue A big thanks goes to Lacey (BOR) for beta-reading this chapter and offering her help… if it wasn't for her this would be filled with mistakes

In the next chap our favorite space cowboy enters the scene… a little out of shape but it's always better than dead... So stay tuned for Chapter 2: One more chance?

And, please, drop me a review… it will make my day, I'm a desperate case...


	3. One more chance?

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Cowboy Bebop

Notes: just three little things: read, enjoy and REVIEW

**_Angel's Punishment_**

Chapter 2: One more chance?

_2074, Red Dragon Hospital - Tharsis city, Mars _

Spike was lying in a hospital bed; he was sure about that, the yellow couch of the Bebop was far more uncomfortable and small than the bed under his back. Even the smell was different, every time he had woken up on the Bebop to the intoxicating scent of cigarette smoke mixed with the smell of bell peppers or with the perfume of vanilla, either it was Jet or Faye who was there near him. Sometimes he had even awakened to the stench of Ein's solid business, but it was always better than the void smell of the hospital.

He didn't want to open his eyes, he couldn't bring himself to look around and find out that he really was still alive, but even with his eyes still closed he could sense that he wasn't dreaming anymore; the ache he was feeling in his limbs was the proof that he wasn't dead. Death was synonymous with peace, silence, stillness… death meant happiness to him; and the voices, the sound of footsteps, the beeping noises around him were evidence that he was indeed living in reality… again.

The bounty hunter couldn't believe that the Dragons saved him, after all he had been the one who killed their leader, he had destroyed their Head quarters and murdered many of their men in doing so… but it was common knowledge that the members of great crime organizations, such as the Red Dragon, were for the most part turncoats… at the first sign of danger, they changed sides and swore allegiance to the more powerful leader, often abandoning their present boss.

_Vicious… the same thing he had done to Mao has now happened to him. Fate really is ironic._

His reasoning stopped as he heard a sudden increase of movements, he could distinctly hear the heavy footfalls in the hallway, and he knew that whoever was coming towards his room surely wasn't a doctor or a nurse. He remembered of having asked to talk with Shin, he didn't know why he had thought of him, he was probably dead… like the others. But at the moment he needed to see a friend, and the younger man was the only friend he had in the syndicate, the only person he could rely on.

Spike decided to keep his eyes closed, he didn't feel like being drugged up again. His ears caught the voices of two men talking on the door of his room, but he couldn't hear what they were saying because the door was still closed. They seemed to disagree about something, most likely about his physical condition, then one of the two raised his voice and their argument was over.

Shin slowly turned the doorknob, the little debate he had with the doctor helped him to relieve some of the tension he had started to accumulate since the moment he had found out about Spike's awakening; however he still felt nervous about confronting his old friend, he didn't know what to expect when he would tell him he was the new leader of the Dragons. Knowing Spike, he was sure it was going to be a difficult fight.

The green-eyed young man entered the room, his eyes scanned over the small place noticing that his older friend was still sleeping; he sighed with relief, at least he would have some time to prepare a little speech. Shin placed his black coat on a chair next to the wall, he took off the black jacket of his business suit and even unbuttoned the first buttons of his satin dark red shirt, he couldn't understand if it was the temperature of the room, or his anxiety that made him feel so hot.

He sat down on a chair that was settled near Spike's bed and folded his hands in his lap patiently waiting for his friend to wake up. After a few minutes Shin's left leg was moving up and down, it was a nervous tic he'd had since his childhood and he had never been able to control it; he tried to stop the movements but in vain, so he gave up. He planted his elbows on his thighs and laid his head on his palms, he couldn't take it anymore; he had to speak with Spike before he went crazy.

Spike didn't move, he had understood it was Shin the moment he entered the room, the guy had always been the affectionate type, someone else would have shut the door closed without paying any attention to the person sleeping in the room, but Shin always tried to cause the least amount of disturbance to anybody around him. The bounty hunter even observed that his friend was quite tense; it wasn't easy not to notice the ruffling sounds of his pants brushing on the leg of the chair. Spike thought that maybe it was the right moment to open his eyes, but he changed his mind when Shin started to talk.

"Spike, I know that you'll hate me for this, I helped you even if I knew it wasn't what you wanted, I saved your life, when you already told me you had nothing to live for… but when I saw you there lying in a pool of blood I couldn't stop myself from thinking that it couldn't end like that, you were one of the few people who I've ever trusted in my life, one of the few friends I've ever had, and I couldn't lose you…"

Shin stopped and took a deep breath before going on with his talking still unaware of Spike listening to him.

"I just wanted to give you another chance, you deserved another chance… I-I know this may seem just a cover for my act of selfishness, but believe me, Spike, it's not…" his voice trailed off as his eyes studied the expensive black leather shoes he was wearing.

"And don't you think Julia, too, deserved another chance?"

Shin looked up immediately, his glare fixed on the still calm face of the green haired man on the bed, his eyes were still shut and his thin lips were closed in a tight line, if a doctor entered the room he would probably think that his patient was still sleeping. But Shin was sure he had heard his voice… ok, maybe he was a little stressed out, but not to the point of hearing voices in his head.

"S-Spike? You're awake?" he asked staring intently at Spike's motionless face.

"Don't you believe Julia deserved another chance, Shin?" he questioned again opening his mismatched russet eyes and tuning his head so that he could look the younger man in the eye. Shin was so happy with seeing that after three years of hell Spike was finally back, that he would jump out of the chair and hug him, he probably would even kiss him; but noticing the cold stare in his eyes he preferred answering his question.

"Of course she deserved another chance, Spike… my brother, Annie, Mao, even Vicious deserved another chance, but they didn't have it, they couldn't … you instead got that possibility, and I don't want you to waste it…" Shin looked up at him with a glare of determination in his jade eyes and continued.

"I won't let you to waste it…"

Spike's eyes widened slightly at his friend's firmness, Shin had sounded almost like Mao Yenrai in one of his usual lectures after he and Vicious had risked their necks for being too careless in a dangerous mission.

'_Maybe he's finally became a man…' _the bounty hunter wondered to himself.

"We'll see about that…" Spike said letting a small smirk appear on his lips. Shin's eyes lit up as they noticed the Cowboy's smile; it was Spike's trademark and he remembered that no matter how beaten up his friend could get during an assignment, his smirk was always unique. He couldn't stop himself from asking.

"Can I hug you?"

"Uh?" Spike didn't even have the time to ask him to repeat the question before his younger ex-partner was hugging him tightly, his hands gripping at his shoulders almost painfully.

'_Or maybe not…" _he said to himself denying his previous thought.

**A/N: **thanks for all the fantastic reviews!


	4. Nemesis Who?

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Cowboy Bebop

Notes: just three little things: read, enjoy and REVIEW

**_Angel's Punishment_**

Chapter 3: Nemesis who?

_2074, Red Dragon Hospital - Tharsis city, Mars _

---- A week later ----

Spike was walking on a treadmill, the doctor had insisted that he started a program training for rehabilitating his atrophied muscles, actually the ex-bounty hunter was kind of surprised that he had made so much progress after only a week of exercise. The only problem was that he had never been so fond of technologies and he couldn't figure out how to shut off the damn thing he was walking on.

Shin entered the rehabilitation unit of the hospital and localized Spike; he couldn't help but smile when he noticed that his friend was hitting quite forcefully the control panel of the gymnastic tool he was using; as he was approaching him he also observed that he wasn't having so many troubles using his legs.

'_Looks like he will be back on business sooner than I thought…' _he said to himself happily.

The green haired man wasn't aware of the young man next to him till he spoke to him.

"I see you're already walking without any difficulties…" Shin commented smiling.

"Yeah…" Spike replied not even looking at him, too wrapped up in trying to stop the infernal tool by punching on it.

"Actually the doc used you to try out a new medical treatment, so that your muscles would be less atrophied when you woke up from the coma…"

"Sure…" was his careless reply when he finally managed to stop the treadmill with a hard blow, smiling proudly as the signal of ERROR appeared on the LCD screen.

"Something wrong?" Spike held himself on the lateral supports as he caught his breath before turning to the man next to him and asking with a raised eyebrow.

"Shin?"

"Yes?"

"Do I seriously have to wear those ridiculous clothes?" he questioned pointing to the black sweatpants and the black t-shirt with the RD logo printed all over them he was wearing.

"Of course, Spike… especially you, of all of us, should be the one wearing that without complaining…" Shin's eyes widened, he had promised to himself he would wait before breaking the news to Spike, but apparently his damn mouth had a mind of its own.

"Are you trying to tell me something, buddy?" he asked with a hint of suspiciousness on his tone.

"Well, you see, not only Mao but also the elders wanted you to take over the leadership of the Syndicate if something happened to them… but then Vicious organized that revolt and you weren't there, so he took the control, but now that he's out of the picture that title belongs to you… you're the new leader, Spike."

The older man didn't seem surprised by the news, at least not as much as Shin had predicted; he was just staring back at him with an enigmatic look in his mismatched eyes, he wetted his lips before speaking again.

"And I supposed you were the one who lead the Syndicate during those three years, right?" Shin nodded his answer.

"Predictable…" Spike said turning around to face the control panel; he continued messing about with it trying to restart the gymnastic tool but at a lower pace. And when he finally succeeded in his efforts he resumed his walking. Then, at that point, ex-leader of the Red Dragons watched in disbelief the green haired man in front of him acting as if nothing important had happened… he couldn't understand if he had really taken the information without any problem, or if it was just a moment of calm before the storm broke out.

"Spike?"

"Hmm?"

"You don't have anything to say? I mean I was expecting you to start complaining about your new role, maybe even hitting me… are you sure you're ok?"

"You _know_ I could _never_ be ok with being a Red Dragon again… I'm just playing it clever…" he answered with a grin.

"W-what do you mean?" Shin muttered starting to sweat, when he wanted Spike could be very dangerous.

"I just thought that since the old fossils are out of the picture, all their powers are in my hands now… so as soon as I'll be able to reach my big luxurious office with my own legs, the first thing I'm gonna do is give my title back to you." the smile on Spike's lips seemed to turn to almost a diabolical grin.

"B-but you can't! At least not right now that we need you!" Shin replied rising his voice, his face beet red with annoyance.

"You've done a great job in the past three years… I'm sure you won't' have any problems keeping the business going in the future…"

"That's not true… I'm a complete incompetent" his voice was thick with shame.

"You're not an inc-"

"No, Spike… you can't understand! You weren't there seeing all my best men going down one by one by the hands of a demon… I haven't been able to help them… I can't stop her, but I'm sure you will."

"Wait… did you say _her_? This _devilish_ killer is a woman?" he asked incredulously.

"We call her Nemesis, the Goddess of Revenge… she's like a ghost, nobody knows who she is, and whoever has seen her found himself sliced open in no time…"

Spike listened as Shin told him about this woman; he was kind of shocked to coming to know that actually somebody could do such things, they were right calling her like the Goddess of Revenge because only somebody who wanted vengeance could have the right determination and mercilessness to act that way. He felt almost jealous of her; he had been the only one till that moment who had really scared the Red Dragons when he had confronted Vicious, but she was without a doubt doing a better job.

From what he got of Shin's speech, their greatest problem was in getting a physical description of Nemesis; she often wore wigs and even colored contacts for hiding her real identity, so the only things that actually distinguished her were her black motorbike, and her weapon… a katana.

"Didn't you put a bounty on her head?" he asked nonchalantly.

"Yeah… and make all the other syndicates laugh at me… we're trying to keep the thing down, Spike. We can't let the others see our weakness."

"Ever considered that she could be a member of the Blue Snake syndicate?"

"No, knowing them they would just come on our HQ and blow up the building…"

"So a mysterious and deadly woman is making the Red Dragons shit in their expensive pants… it's kinda interesting" Spike said with a chuckle.

"Does it mean you'll help us?" Shin asked hoping for a positive answer

"Always, if she doesn't get me first…"

"Can I-" the younger man's question was cut off by his friend's deadly glare.

"NO! Not in this life, Shin… I won't be hugged by a man again…"

"Oh… ok" Shin looked down at his feet with embarrassment written all over his face.


	5. Four is bad luck

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Cowboy Bebop…

**_Angel's Punishment_**

**__**

**__**

Chapter 4: Four is bad luck…

_2074, Kenji Morimoto's Estate- Venus_

A man in his forties was sitting cross-legged on the wooden floor of his Japanese style big house; he was wearing black Hakama pants and a crimson tank top that half-revealed the shape of a big dragon tattoo on his back. His long black hair was pulled back in a low ponytail at the base of his head; and his ice blue eyes were fixed on studying the rhythmic movements of the bamboo fountain in the small lake in the garden.

He was thinking over the events of the morning, he had been in his private bathroom doing what he was used to doing after he had woken up, since he was a child: washing his face, brushing his teeth and combing his long hair. But that morning something had gone wrong… the comb had broken in his hand. For everyone else that event would have been meaningless, just an annoyance; but to Kenji it had been a sign, a sign of bad luck, and even if he was a heartless killer, nothing could change the attachment to his Japanese origins as well as his insane belief in superstitions.

Moreover he noticed that it was the fourth day of the month and, as the tradition wanted, that was a day of bad luck. Sometimes he told himself that this obsession was just a weakness he needed to eliminate, he knew that this fixation was influencing his actions as well as his whole life, but he couldn't give it up, it was something he had in his blood.

"Something bothering you, sir?" one of the guards asked noticing the pensive state of his boss

"I just have a bad feeling, Toshihiro…"

"Because it's the fourth?"

"Because it's the fourth…" he answered confirming the guard's intuition

"Do you want me to increase the number of men on the perimeter?"

"In all my life I learned lots of things… one of them is that no matter how many men you have in your defense, nothing can stop Fate…"

"As you wish, sir…"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_2074, Aphrodite Motel – Venus_

_'There are just two targets between me and freedom, now… just two more cowards to eliminate and then it will be all over…'_

Faye was standing opposite the mirror in the small bathroom of her motel room; she had just come out of the shower and was examining her reflection. Her physical appearance hadn't changed so much, except for her now longer hair her body was still the same; maybe she was even more in shape than three years before, result of the daily hours of training she had to do…

She felt goose bumps rise all over her skin, partly because of the chilly air of the bathroom, partly because of the tension that was building up in her mind and body. Her stomach was upset and she was sure that if she ate something she would throw up in no time, she was used to those symptoms, they appeared every time she was going to kill somebody on her list. She didn't understand why after three years it felt as if she was at her first murder, but on the other hand it kind of reassured her, it reminded her that after all she was just human, a person with feelings, regrets and hopes that couldn't be completely ignored.

Sometimes she was even scared of herself, of what she had became in the past few years, and now more than ever she was seriously afraid of what would become of her after she would be finished with avenging her lost love. It frightened her knowing that after killing those last two people on her list her life would have been empty, her whole existence would lose its only goal. Faye wasn't used to that… living without a purpose, a point of arrival. Before having her memories back, her greatest target was to recover from her amnesia and get back to where she belonged… she wanted to find out who she really was and that had been the reason that had driven her actions.

Similarly, in the last three years her decisions and actions had been dictated by her longing for revenge, her primary target had been provoking suffering to those who had taken Spike away from her. There wasn't a moment in her days when she wouldn't be thinking about how to kill her next victim, she spent hours scheming her attacks, choosing the most appropriate disguise for the different occasions, and planning for the getaways… she knew she was good, and the satisfaction, that their fear for 'Nemesis' gave her, was beyond comparison.

That had been her goal: making them feel helpless, weak and impotent… she wanted them to experience what she had felt the moment she had came to know that Spike was dead. But now that she was so near to end her work, she couldn't help but ask herself what she was going to do next? What would have been of her life when all the reasons that made her existence worthwhile would be gone?

Faye pressed her forehead against the glass surface of the mirror, her hands supporting her weight on the sink; she let out a sigh misting the mirror and blurring her reflection on it. Her emerald eyes were the only part of her face she could still see clearly, watching deeply into them she could see they were different, something had changed in them from when she was just a young girl, they had lost their light, they had lost their naiveté. Those deep green eyes had seen so much blood, wounds and violence in the last few years, so many lives passed away under their cold gaze, so many tears had been shed by them; and countless times their owner had hoped that those eyes were blind…

The dark-haired beauty closed her eyelids and breathed in deep, the steamy hair of the bathroom felt heavy as it passed through her nostrils to the lungs, it made her felt dizzy and she decided it was time to get out and take a breath of fresh hair, to clear not only her lungs but also her mind. Faye closed the bath door behind her and went to get dressed in the small room she had spent her night in. She put on a short black pleated skirt and a bright green V-necked t-shirt, she gathered up her long dark purple hair and put on a blonde wig. Faye looked at herself in he mirror above the dresser, the fake straight blonde hair reached her middle back, the same length of her real hair, and the bangs almost covered her eyes but it wasn't a problem for her, she put her favorite bloody red lipstick on her lips and black eyeliner on her eyes.

She sat on the single bed and looked at the corner of the room where all her shoes were; she was unsure on what pair to choose… the black high-heeled stilettos, or the knee-high black boots she usually wore for riding. The first ones were elegant and with years of practice she could say they were better than any sneakers for running away from any dangerous situations; and the second ones weren't exactly the most fashionable shoes, but surely the only ones she could wear for riding a motorbike. She picked out the boots and put them on. The leather thigh holster was the next thing she wore, her Glock was always essential for her safety… even if she was quite good with the other weapon she always took with her… the katana.

Faye loathed that sword, it was the reminder of what she had lost, the instrument who had taken the life of the one person she was most attached to, but the thing she hated the most about that sword was that it had once been owned by Vicious. She didn't know much about Spike's past life in the syndicate, and she had seen the silver haired man just once… but it had been enough to understand what kind of person he was… hell, referring to him as a person was even too much, he was the ghost of a person, a damned soul who had been betrayed by the one he loved the most, deprived of that part of his heart that was able to feel emotions, just to have it replaced with pain, rage and hate.

Julia…

It had been all her fault, she should have chosen between Spike and Vicious… but she couldn't, she hadn't wanted to lose either of them… and as they say: grasp all, lose all… she had wanted them all for herself, and she ended up with losing the both of them… at the same time. The blonde angel had ruined so many lives she wouldn't even imagine for being such an egoistic bitch… thank God in the end somebody had finally shot her; Faye couldn't even remember how many times she had regretted not having done it herself when she had met the blue-eyed lady for the first time.

The ex-bounty huntress shook her head, almost like she wanted to get rid of the unpleasant thoughts that were going through her mind; she put on her black leather jacket and after taking up the katana she closed the door of her room, and left the motel determined to find a cab that would took her to the next man on her list: Kenji Morimoto.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Toshihiro?" Kenji called his personal bodyguard.

"Yes, sir?"

"I need you to do something for me…" his voice was full of solemnity.

"Anything, sir."

"A few weeks ago I got in touch with a person who claims to be in possession of Vicious' katana… you know I've been looking for that sword since when it was stolen three years ago, that person is coming here today so I can see the sword…"

"Do you want me to search him for guns?" the guard asked not letting his chief finish the speech.

"On the contrary, Toshihiro… I want you and all the others to stay out of this; it's something I need to do on my own."

"But if you don't know who he is, how can you trust him?" Toshihiro sounded almost worried.

"That's not the point, I know perfectly who she is… but she doesn't know I know…"

_'She?'_

"Sir, is- is she Nemesis?" the name felt almost heavy as his tongue and lips spelled it, they rarely mentioned the infamous female assassin; it was a taboo topic: nobody talked about it, but it was constantly on everybody's minds. A chill ran down his back as Kenji nodded his reply.

"But how did you know it is her?"

"Only Vicious' sword has such a flawless and powerful blade, I know it well and only his katana could have killed those men with that precision… Nemesis is using his sword, but she would never imagine this meeting is a trap; she has probably seen my advertisement on the web and agreed to meet me just after she saw my name on her death-list… she believes she will catch me by surprise, but it's her turn to be surprised" he explained.

"You've seen what has happened to every man or woman who has met her… she's a demon."

"No, she's just an inexpert little girl who likes to play samurai… I don't know why she's doing what she does, but I plan to find it out as soon as I get her… but I don't want any help in catching her, I don't need it! If she beats me it'll mean I have underestimated her skills, shame on me… but, please, stay out of this" Toshihiro had known his boss since forever, and he had never seen him lose his coolness, he'd never seen him beg; but as he looked into his blue eyes he could tell that for the first time Kenji Morimoto was pleading.

"It will be done, Morimoto-sensei…"

"Arigato…" was his sincere reply "I just hope that for once my superstitions are wrong…"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"We're here, madam…" the taxi driver woke Faye from her reverie; Venus always made her feel a little lightheaded, and not only due to its characteristic plants, famous for being the cause of Venus' disease; but mostly because it was where _he_ was buried, she went to Gaia-city every two weeks to lay some flowers on his grave, and she was grateful that Jet had decided not to bury him on Tharsis-city… it would have been too much even for her.

"How much do I owe you?" she asked in a surprisingly polite tone for the rude woman she used to be in the golden days on the Bebop.

"Two thousand Woolongs, miss…" she handled him the money and got out of the cab. Faye stared at the massive wooden gate before her, her hand gripping possessively onto the katana she held in her grasp; she took a few steps forward and reached the doorbell. A deep male voice answered her, questioning about her identity.

"It's Daryl Evans… I'm here for the sword" she responded with a half-truth. The gate opened in front of her letting her eyes gaze upon the amazing garden it hid; as she walked towards the entrance she also noticed with slight surprise that there weren't many guards.

_'It will be easier for me to get away…" _she said to herself letting a small smile appear on her lips.

The emerald-eyed woman knocked twice on the wooden surface of the door and waited for someone to answer; what she didn't expect was that Morimoto would answer in person.

"Finally we meet, Miss Evans… I'm Kenji Morimoto" he said courteously looking at her with gentle sapphire eyes.

"Nice to meet you, too Morimoto-san…"

"May we get in... ladies first" Faye entered in the house, it was a beautiful place, full of expensive typical Japanese furniture and objects; there were also lots of weapons on the walls, probably centuries old memorabilia that had cost him a fortune.

He led her to his office and closed the door behind them, Faye was getting more and more suspicious as the time passed, she didn't see any armed men in the house, something kind of strange for an ex-Syndicate member who probably had lots more than a single enemy. She was staring at the door lost in thought when his voice interrupted her wondering. The ex- bounty huntress eyes fixed on his turned figure as he spoke to her.

"So, what does a beautiful woman like you do with such a dangerous sword, Miss Evans?" Kenji faced her, an arrogant smirk placed on his lips before he continued on.

"…or should I call you Nemesis?"

**A/N:** sorry for the cliffhanger… I know I promised there would be a fight, but I had to split up the chap in two… next chap is almost done, I'll send it to my beta-reader as soon as possible, till then we'll have to wait…

And THANKS for the fantastic reviews! _You_ make my life worthwhile … so keep on reviewing!


	6. Not exactly a pleasant surprise…

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Cowboy Bebop…

**_Angel's Punishment_**

Chapter 5: Not exactly a pleasant surprise…

_2074, Kenji Morimoto's Estate -Venus-_

"…or should I call you Nemesis?"

Faye's eyes widened as he spoke the last word. Nemesis was the code name the RD used to identify her, she didn't choose it but she found it really fitting… after all, like the Greek goddess, her mission was to punish people who had done awful deeds and unfairly ruined other's lives; she was a wounded spirit seeking revenge.

Her right hand impulsively reached for the sword that was securely tied on her back, in a swift movement she had it out of its sheath and positioned in front of her. Both her slender hands were grasping tightly the hilt of the katana, its long sharp blade ready to strike at any moment.

Kenji looked at the sword, it was as beautiful as he remembered it, the girl had done a good job in not ruining it; but it didn't matter to him, he wanted that katana at all costs and nothing could stop him. Catching Faye off guard he turned on his left in a quick movement and gripped one of the Japanese swords he kept in his office; his skilled hands draw the blade up at eye level, and stared defiantly at his opponent, his lips still stirred up in an arrogant smirk.

"Wanna play, oh mighty goddess of revenge?" his low voice teased her as the sharp end of his katana pointed toward her.

The beautiful assassin didn't give him a verbal reply; instead she lunged herself at him, her strikes were fast and well aimed, but he wasn't a beginner and could stand up to her without any difficulties. Kenji noticed that, as he had imagined, she was very well trained and rapid in her movements, she was able to put all her rage and desperation in the force of her strikes, but that was her only strong point. What she had in rapidity, she lacked in technique… the blonde girl opposite him was probably in her mid- twenties and surely couldn't have the experience necessary to be an expert as he was with the art of the sword…

As he dodged one of her powerful attacks his mind relived some memories he had shared with Vicious, they had trained together and he remembered that the silver haired man was just like the woman he was fighting… full of energy and impulsive. But along the years something had changed in his friend, he entered in the RD and everything was different for him, especially after he had met with Spike Spiegel. Kenji had entered in the syndicate just because Vicious had asked him to, he hadn't seen him for three years but when Vicious had called him he couldn't refuse… after the showdown at the RD HQ and Vicious' death he had no more reasons to stay in the organization and decided to leave, mainly because now it would have been Spike Spiegel the leader, and he simply couldn't bear it.

"I don't really know why you're doing this… I'm not a dragon anymore…" he said attacking her with his blade just to have it stopped by hers.

"The Red Dragon is more like a charity organization, now…" he continued noticing she didn't reply.

"And as long as it will be led by that coward Spiegel, things won't change…" he said it without any purpose, he just wanted to disturb her concentration with his talking, but probably what he said was more than a little disturbing for her.

_'Spike?'_ it was almost like her heart had stopped beating, how could that be? He was dead… buried on Venus not so far from Julia's grave… could it be that they had been wrong? Maybe he had been saved from the other members of the RD…

_'STOP IT!'_ a voice inside her woke her from her wondering, it was the same cold voice that always haunted her, the voice of her rational part, that part she was used to obeying. And it was suggesting to her that probably since he knew she was Nemesis, he could even know she was Faye Valentine and he was using Spike just as a way to distract her.

_'Spike's dead, Faye… stop hoping already'_ Faye heard the voice more clearly this time; but before she could regain complete control over her mind and body a tearing pain broke out on her right shoulder, she could feel the cold steel of the blade penetrate her flesh and tear it apart. Faye choked out a pained scream and looked wide eyed at the grinning man opposite her; she was about to let the katana slip down her manicured fingers but reached it with her left hand before it fell to the floor.

"Let's see how you can do left-handed…" he drew his weapon above his head before taking a step towards her as he took a swing at her injured figure, Faye managed to deflect his strike with her sword, but with the piercing pain on her shoulder and being forced to use the left hand, she could only try to defend herself.

The blue-eyed swordsman stepped back, giving to his opponent a moment of truce. Faye reached up to feel how bad the cut on her shoulder was, but didn't take her glare from the man in front of her; the wound was pretty deep and it was bleeding freely, it wouldn't take much time before she started to feel giddy… but she needed to finish what she had came to do. On the other side of the room Kenji was studying her and smiling to himself decided to push her control a little more over the edge, now that he had discovered her weak point… Spike Spiegel.

"Spike… just a bastard like him can have such a doggy name" he said looking into her deeply angered green eyes. Faye clenched her teeth and tightened her hold on the katana, she couldn't let him win just because he knew her weakness, and she couldn't let three years of her life get wasted just because of a name. It was time to put an end to this fight, and she would be the one who would do it.

The fake blonde wig was plastered against her forehead and was starting to annoy her as it kept getting into her eyes; she raised her good arm and took off the wig throwing it on the floor away from her. Kenji raised an eyebrow to her, he had to say that she looked better with her real hair color, and now that she had discarded the blonde wig he could almost say she looked familiar, and it was a strange feeling since he didn't know anybody who had deep violet hair.

_'Doesn't happen so often to see such a beauty…'_ he thought, but he couldn't place where he had already seen her.

Taking advantage of his moment of inattention Faye attacked him with a swift strike to his head, but he recovered in time and stopped her blade just a few inches from his neck. He looked up from where their katana was entwined and fixed his gaze on her emerald irises, their ragged breath mingled and he could almost feel her heart hammering in her chest. The more he stared into the depths of her eyes the more he convinced himself he knew her; and then he saw it, he saw past the veil of anger in her eyes, he saw the wild flame of determination and life shone in her pupils. The same flame he had seen years before in a girl Vicious had kidnapped.

----- Flashback -----(A/N: set in session 5 – Ballad of Fallen Angels)

"Who's she?" Kenji asked to his younger boss coming into his office and noticing the tied up girl sitting on a chair; she seemed not so happy to be there and she didn't try to hide it as she moved incessantly on the chair sending infuriated glares to the men in the room.

"She's just a little incentive to get Spike here faster… right Miss Valentine?" Vicious' cold gray eyes looked in her direction and she tried to insult him through the gag on her mouth.

"Spiegel has always been the ladies' man…" he commented, suddenly regretting saying something like that in the presence of his silver-haired friend.

"Yeah… even when they were already taken" Vicious replied his cold gaze changing into a vacant stare, as his lips showed a sad smile.

----- End Flashback -----

His eyes widened with realization as the mysterious girl opposite him finally had a name, but that knowledge would have been useless to him because as soon as he tried to speak a bullet was shot into his chest. His sword slid down his palms onto the floor as he looked with a shocked expression at the hole in his upper body, and then back to the face of his murderer.

"It's not a doggy name…" were her last words to him as she stared at his body falling on its knees and then slowly went to lay on the cold floor, a bloody stream running down his lips.

Faye replaced her Glock into its holster on her thigh, and sheathed her katana on her back, before stepping out of the room gripping at the wound on her shoulder, trying to stop the blood from flowing out. Her footsteps could be already heard in the hallway when a dying Kenji Morimoto spoke one last word before falling into the abyss of death.

"Valentine…"

------------------------------------------------------------------

Faye ran to the door in the back of the building where she knew she wouldn't have any problems getting away, she didn't find any guards in her path and wasn't surprised since they probably were all gathered in the room where she had shot their boss. She didn't know what could have made Morimoto be so careless, when she reached her gun with her aching arm she was almost sure he would have stopped her, but he didn't, and we all know well what had happened next.

The ex-bounty huntress found the small exit door on the perimeter wall open, thanks to the ability of a hacker she knew well (A/N: hinthint), and reached the Ducati 999 she had parked there the day before. Faye took off her leather jacket and bright green t-shirt, leaving her chest clad only in her black bra, she tore apart the t-shirt and bandaged her wounded shoulder tightly, at least she was sure it would stop bleeding leaving her the time to reach a place she needed to visit as soon as possible.

She wore a black tank top and replaced the skirt with a pair of jeans she had left the day before along with the motorbike. She couldn't wait a minute more; she put on her helmet and drove to the road that would take her to the graveyard. She needed to get there as fast as she could, she needed to get a hold on her raging emotions, she had to stop the butterflies that were messing around her stomach since Morimoto's lips spelled Spike's name.

Faye knew what it was that feeling that was nagging her heart, it was hope, and she had learnt long ago that hope was a sneaky emotion… since she was a child everyone she met would say to her things like: 'your eyes are the color of hope: green'… she grew up with a great faith in hope. But every time she had hoped something good happened in her life, her faith would be betrayed, and at the point she was now, hope was a sentiment she happened very rarely to feel. And when she felt it all she could do was reach that desolate cemetery and deny every little flame of hope with the power of truth.

The florist was watering his flowers when he noticed the familiar black motorbike stop in front of the massive metal gate of the graveyard, he stared as the woman got off of it and walked toward his shop. The old man prepared two red roses; she knew already that the woman would ask them; the dark haired lady nodded to the florist and got the flowers after paying, the older man smiled to her and watched as she disappeared past the gate.

The florist knew well that strange girl, she had come almost every two weeks for the past three years, she would buy two roses and then take them to some graves; he was tempted to ask her about this weird habit, but as soon as he saw the sad expression on her face he bit his tongue and let the girl confront her ghosts alone… after all, from the vacant look in her eyes the old florist could tell that girl was used to deal with ghosts.

* * *

_2074, Red Dragon HQ, Technological Division - Tharsis city - Mars- _

---- Few days later----

A man in his mid- thirties was pacing back and forth in the technological laboratory of the RD; he was bald with deep brown eyes, almost black, and he wore glasses. He was clad in the characteristic black business suit with a dark gray shirt and red tie.

"Did we have something, or she erased it all, like always?" he suddenly asked the younger woman sitting at the computer.

"The cameras didn't record anything of the fight… but I believe this time our infallible assassin did a little mistake" the blonde woman answered with a mischievous smile.

"What?" the man inquired with a grave tone.

"Come and take a look at this…" she pointed at the screen opposite her "initially I didn't notice anything, but looking at it for the second time I saw that Morimoto seems to be saying something…"

"Can you work out what he's saying?" he asked looking at the record with curious eyes.

"He's saying 'Valentine'… I'm not sure but maybe he knew her, maybe she was in the syndicate before, or they've done something to her, or her family in the past and he recognized her."

"Find everything you can about this name, Leila… this is our turning point, after three years we finally have something, and I'm sure she's nearer than we could imagine…"

"Do you believe I should tell the good news to Mr. Spiegel?" she asked looking into his deep eyes.

"Keep it between us for now… I don't trust him completely."

"Ok, Maxim, I won't say anything…"

"Thanks…" he replied smiling to her before leaving the room.

**A/N: **so, was it good? Bad? Tell me in a review!


	7. When a dead man walks

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Cowboy Bebop… happy now?

Notes: I was finally able to get in touch with my beta, she had some problems with her pc and couldn't work on the files I sent her… but now she's back on business and with this chapter of angel's punishment's too! So, read and enjoy!

**_Angel's Punishment_**

Chapter 6: When a dead man walks…

_2074, Gaia City – Venus -_

**---- **Takes place while Faye's reaching the cemetery **----**

The black limo was speeding along the main road of Gaia City, the people on the sidewalks glanced at it not even bothering to wonder who was inside of it, they were used to see the expensive cars of rich celebrities coming to the city for some movie's preview. But maybe if they knew that sitting in the back seats there was the leader of one of the most powerful syndicates, they would have watched that car with far more uneasiness.

Spike stared out of the blackened window, his mind lost in thought as he waited for the driver to reach the set destination; he was going to visit Gaia's graveyard, he was going to pay his respects to Julia's grave, and he was going to see where his body was supposed to lie… six feet under the ground. The RD leader's thoughts went back to that morning, two days before, when he and Shin had the conversation that lead to this travel.

He asked out of curiosity Shin what he had said to the Bebop crew about his hospitalization in the RD structures, the younger man had answered that only the members of the organization knew that he was still alive. To anybody else's knowledge Spike Spiegel had died that day on the steps of the RD Headquarters after killing Vicious and destroying a great part of the building. After learning that, Spike had started to wonder what happened to his shipmates after his supposed death: were they still working as a team? Had Ed came back? Did Jet's leg heal completely from the shot-wound? He couldn't help but ask himself how Faye was doing; the image of the sadness in her emerald eyes when they talked for the last time, the sound of the shots and her quiet sobs echoing in the poorly lit hallway, still fresh in his memory.

The roar of a motor woke him up from his reverie and without thinking he looked at the road for the source of the loud sound, when a black motorbike passed his car at a high speed. The person driving it turned to glance at the limo, before stepping on the accelerator and disappearing from his sight; something of that person caught Spike's eyes… even if her face was hidden behind the crash helmet, he had noticed the long dark violet hair that stuck out of the headgear and moved in the wind behind her.

_'That could have been Faye…'_ he thought to himself since she was the only woman he had ever seen who had that hair color. Then he smiled and hit his forehead on the glass surface lightly; why would Faye be riding a motorbike and carrying a katana? His ironic question turned into a serious one as soon as him mind elaborated the words more deeply…

_'A black motorbike and a katana?' _

"Nemesis…" he spoke aloud not even noticing the word forming on his lips.

"What did you say?" Shin asked as he sat opposite him busy reading the newspaper.

"Nothing, I was just talking to myself…" he replied not taking his eyes from the road, he heard his friend making a sound of understanding and returned to his reasoning.

Could that woman actually be the deadly assassin they were trying to catch? Maybe Shin's worries about coming to Venus were right; maybe she knew about his awakening and now was there to finish him off, like all the others. Maybe the purple hair was part of the trick.

_'God… I'm becoming paranoid; Shin has rubbed it off on me...' _

But why would she have turned to look at the car if she didn't know he was in it? It wasn't so rare to see a black limo in a big city; she had to know who was in the car… Spike couldn't stop his brain from formulating suspicions and making him feel anxious; and it was something he couldn't bear, it was frustrating for a man that had never been scared in all his life to feel so helpless and restless.

"Sir, we're almost there…" the driver's voice said from the speaker.

"Thanks, Chris" he replied watching as Shin folded the newspaper and righted his suit.

"So, are you ready to confront your ghosts?" the green-eyed man asked of his boss.

"I faced my ghosts three years ago, Shin… I'm just paying my respects to them."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Faye stepped on the gas and increased the speed she was moving at; she didn't know why she had turned to stare at that limo on the road, she had felt the urge to look at it, it was like there was something that drew her to it. Call it sixth sense, or female intuition, but she could sense that whoever was riding in that black car had some link with her; she felt a weird connection with it.

_'Or maybe it's just the painkiller I took, that's playing with my head…_' she said to herself eyeing the bandage on her right shoulder that was now soaking with her blood.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The black limo reached the graveyard and three of the four men inside got out of it; the sun was almost to the point of settling but the air was still unbearably hot and Spike didn't wait for taking off the suit jacket and rolling up his black shirt sleeves. He glanced at the two men standing at either of his sides, who were still all dressed up, and trying to keep their cold façades despite the suffocating heat.

"I won't be scandalized if you take off your jackets, scout's honor" he said to them stuffing his hands in the pockets of the black suit pants he was wearing, and then took off towards the gate.

Shin and Mark didn't wait for him to say it a second time, and took off their jackets; the ex- leader took a step to follow Spike when he felt his partner's hand grip his forearm, Shin looked questioningly in Mark's violet irises.

"I believe we have a problem…" he said staring at something behind the green-eyed man, who turned to see what he was referring to.

"Shit!" he said loudly enough for Spike to hear.

"That's not the right language to use in a holy place, Shin…" the lanky ex- bounty hunter teased.

"Shit, shit, shit! Spike, come back here!" the younger man yelled hurrying to his friend and stopping in front of him.

"That's her motorbike, Spike!" he said pointing toward the black vehicle parked not far from the gate "we need to get back, now!"

Spike looked at the black Ducati, it was the same that had passed his car minutes before. He couldn't believe it… it had actually been her.

"The motor's already cooled down! She's been here for sometime now!" Mark said approaching them, after having checked the temperature of the motor trying to find out for how long she had been there.

"We can't stay here any longer… let's go!" the brown haired man said gripping his leader's arm and leading him towards the limo. But no matter much he tried he couldn't move him, it was like his feet were glued to the asphalt under him.

"Spike, stop being an idiot and move!" Shin said, not thinking that now the man in front of him was far more than merely a partner, but his leader.

"And what, Shin? Let her go without even taking a look at her face, the real one? She's not so dumb to leave her motorbike out there for everyone to see, if she was really here to kill me, she would have hid it… weren't you the one who talked about chances? Well, we have one right now, and I won't lose it" his resolute tone of voice surprised both Shin and Mark, it had been a month since when he took over the leadership of the Red Dragon and they had never seen him so serious about anything.

"Ok, Spike… but we'll come with you" the younger man said resigning himself at his boss' stubbornness, moving to follow him towards the graveyards' entrance.

The three men entered in the sacred area; it was completely different from the last time Spike had been in a cemetery. Three years ago when he went to meet Julia on Tharsis it had been like the heavens were crying, he could almost remember the intense scent of wet flowers and the cracking sound of the old metal gate as it was moved by the wind. He remembered the damp clothes sticking to his skin, his hair plastered on his forehead and on the back of his neck. The moment he had seen her beautiful face his heart should have felt pure happiness, but truly the emotion that had came to surface was sadness and melancholy; it was almost as if his heart already know that he wouldn't have been able to hold her in his arms for long before she slipped away again. But that time she had gone away for good.

Right then instead the dusk sun was creating an almost surreal atmosphere and as he walked through the graves he couldn't help but notice that even if it was a gloomy place, the last rays of sun that hit his face made him feel at peace, he felt free and alive. Just like that day on the RD headquarters steps when he had thought he would die, the sun's heat had touched his face and he'd had a taste of true contentment after years of not feeling anything at all.

"Sir?" Mark's voice broke his stream of thoughts and he blinked before turning to the voice waiting for him to continue.

"She's stopped on a grave not so far from here, but I think it's better for us if we stay out of her sight…"

"Yeah, whatever…" he replied with his head still in the clouds.

Spike followed the others, they stopped behind a huge family tomb and then he saw her, and his breath was caught in his throat. She was wearing a pair of faded blue jeans, and a black tank top that left her belly and lower back uncovered, her left hand gripped tightly a Japanese sword, its blade protected by its black sheath. He noticed that a nearly dried stream of blood was running down her right arm from the bandage on her shoulder, but in spite of the wound her right hand still managed not to let the two roses in her grasp fall.

He stared at her long dark hair slightly moving in the soft breeze, and when his eyes scanned the beautiful features of her face, the cute shape of her nose, her small but full red lips, her unique emerald eyes, he knew that his intuition had been right not once, but two times that day, because the woman he was looking at not only was Nemesis, but also his ex-partner the annoying infamous shrew-woman, better known as Faye Valentine.

"At least now we're sure that her hair color is black…" Shin said looking intently at the woman he had tried to catch for three years without succeeding.

"Dark violet…" Spike corrected him.

"Oh, yeah…" he replied surprised that he would argue over such a minimal detail.

"Green eyes, about 5.58 feet, 26 years old…" he listed slowly as Shin and Mark were staring at him, mouth agape.

"Spike, How-?"

"Name, Faye Valentine" he trailed off still studying her as she moved to put one of the two roses on the grave and said something to it touching its cold surface.

"How… how did you know her?" Mark asked shocked by his boss' revelation.

"Did you have an idea of who is the poor guy who lies under there?" Spike questioned ignoring the golden haired man's question.

"How am I supposed to- holy Jesus! Spike, that's your grave!" he answered even more stunned than before, things were developing quite fast and he really needed a pause before he had a heart attack.

"Not that I had any doubts about it…" were his last words before his eyes turned to the female figure not so far from their hiding spot.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Faye crouched down next to the marble surface of the tomb and placed the red rose on it then her fingers brushed on the picture of her lost partner, and her mind went back to the day they took that photo. Ed had insisted that they posed on Spike's Swordfish II the four of them plus the dog, and even if nobody a part from the crazy girl had said it was a great picture, they had all thought it. In the picture you could even see part of her red sweater and arm above Spike's smirking face, she couldn't help but smile as she replied in her mind their pointless fight over the positions on the spaceship.

------ Flashback ------

Spike was already sitting on the cockpit of the Swordfish II, his baby, his arms crossed on his chest as he waited for Ed to set the camera, when Faye made her appearance on the dock.

"So where do I have to pose?" she asked, taking off her sunglasses.

"Behind the camera…" Spike replied smirking at his joke.

"Faye, just shut up and sit on the ground in front of the ship…" Jet said from his position above Spike, from his upset voice she could understand that the sun hitting his bald head wasn't exactly a pleasant feeling.

"And leave the lunkhead the entire scene? Over my dead body…" Faye said coldly as she climbed up and settled next to Spike, she hooked her arm around the cockpit and grinned victoriously at him.

"At least my beauty will cover your ugliness…" he said earning a kick and a new scratch on the red paint of his beloved ship.

------ End Flashback ------

Her sincere smile turned into a sad one as the force of reality hit her memories and she stood up saying her goodbyes before leaving the grave directed to pay a visit to another person that lied in there.

"One more, Spike, soon I'll be free, just like you… wait for me cowboy."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Where do you think she's going?" Mark asked.

"Julia's grave is in that direction…" Shin replied, watching as Spike took a cigarette off of his packet and lit it before sliding down to the ground inhaling deeply. His eyes were fixed in the distance, he seemed lost in thought but actually his mind was too confused to formulate a single thought: why was Faye doing that? What had made her become the merciless assassin she was now? Why was she taking flowers to Julia's grave, when she met her only once? What happened that caused her the wound on her shoulder? Too many questions that had the same identical answer: because of himself, of his selfishness and his stubbornness. He didn't notice Shin sitting beside him till his voice questioned:

"Are you going to let her go without even trying to catch her?"

"She brought me roses…" he answered matter-of-factly smiling before bringing the cigarette back to his thin lips.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The three members of the Red Dragon sat silently in the same spot till they heard the motorbike start up and leave the graveyard. They didn't share a word with the others; they just sat there on the gravel path staring at the pointy tip of the pine that stood in the perimeter of the sacred place. Each one lost in his own thoughts, trying to give answers to tormenting questions, such as: had it been the right thing to do, letting her go like that? After all it didn't really matter that she had bonds with Spike, she was always the one who had killed many of their partners, sometimes even friends; did she deserved the clemency they were giving her, when she hadn't been the least bit merciful towards her victims?

Even if they had known their leader since the times they were just simple beginners, and despite the great respect and feeling of friendship they had for him; Shin and Mark were starting to doubt about Spike's ability in leading the syndicate. Sure, they couldn't deny that in one day he had found more information about Nemesis that they had done in three years, but that encounter could have been pure coincidence; on the other hand he had proved to care more for himself than his men, and that was one of the rules a leader should never break.

"Bring me to Julia's grave, Shin…" Spike's voice broke the silence as he sat up and stamped out his third cigarette with his black boots.

Shin nodded and started walking to the aforementioned tomb. He stopped in front of an impressive family grave built in black and deep red marble, the emblem of a dragon above its entrance made it clear to whom it belonged. Spike entered and looked around himself, there were the vases containing the Van Elder's ashes, Mao's gravestone with fresh flowers, and other graves with names he just heard about, probably other leaders that had died before he was even born. Spike's eyes finally located the two tombs he was looking for; he saw the red rose that Faye had had in her hand on Julia's, while he couldn't help but notice the black sign left by the plastic sole of a boot on the white marble of Vicious' tomb, surely another courtesy of Faye.

"Such a bad temper, Valentine…" he said to himself after a chuckle, surprised that her bad attitude never left her, even if now she was a coldhearted killer. Spike's mismatched russet gaze moved to the inscription on Julia's tombstone, it read:

'HERE LIES A FALLEN ANGEL, NOW FINALLY BACK IN THE HEAVENS WHERE SHE BELONGS…'

_'That's a Vicious' classic phrase…'_ he said to himself his smile fading as his fingers brushed the cold surface. He shouldn't be there, looking at her grave; he should have been with her in some afterlife, his dream was over and he should have been dead. When he had told Faye he was going to see if he was really alive, he had lied to her… he had known his life was over the moment Julia's blue eyes closed for the last time, his soul had stayed trapped behind her closed eyelids and his only way to free it was to reach her, die for her.

But it seemed that his soul had regained its freedom by itself since he was still alive and breathing; and even if he tried to hide it, Shin's lecture about not losing a second chance had really shaken his view of things. The ghost of his past had finally been put to rest, and the dream he used to live in was just a painful memory in his mind; he had to start live in real time again, and this time there was nothing holding him back. He would get Faye, take her out of the mess she had so wonderfully put herself into, and go back living his life as a broke bounty hunter, eating Jet's bell peppers, and trying to figure out what strange creature was living in Ed's head.

"I wish things would have been different for us… you've been the only thing that mattered to me for a long time, but now I need to get my family back… goodbye, Julia." His whispered words echoed through the walls of the little chapel, as he looked for the last time at the inscriptions before walking towards the exit.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_2074, Red Dragon's Headquarters, Tharsis – Mars -_

---- A few days later ----

Spike was walking along one of the hallways in the Headquarters, his black boots falling on the black marble with loud footsteps, he had a lit cigarette dangling from his lips and his trench coat was slumped over his shoulder. As always it had been raining on the Martian capital. The doctor said it would be a good exercise for his legs coming up the stairs, but at nine in the morning he preferred using the elevator. He finally reached the machine and noticed that in the near small break area there was two of his men having some coffee; they greeted him with the usual "morning, sir" and went back to their talk. As he waited for the device to reach the first floor Spike couldn't help but listen to their conversation.

"Have you heard about Morimoto?" asked the younger one.

"Yes, they said it was her again…" their leader's ears perked up at the mention of Faye's latest execution.

"Of course it was her, nobody else could have beat Kenji… he was as good as Vicious."

"Poor thing, she doesn't even imagine what we're gonna do to her as soon as we catch her… I kinda miss the good old times Vicious let us _enjoy ourselves_ with his preys…" Spike's frown deepened remembering the silver-haired man's perverted games.

"Yeah, I've heard she's pretty hot, too… I really can't wait to be inside of her hearing her screams of pain… I could already smell the sweet scent of her blood" one of the two said with a full laugh but was interrupted by the sound of a low chuckle coming from the man standing at the elevator doors. Spike really couldn't bear it anymore, his level of disgust had reached its limit; he wouldn't permit that his men do such things to anybody, much less to Faye.

"Now, I understand why she enjoys slitting open people like you so much…" he said in a low voice, making the two men's boldness melt like ice under the sun, they looked at each other not knowing what to say.

"W-we're sorry, sir… we were just-" one of the two said after gaining some courage.

"I don't want to hear _that_ name anymore, nor do I want anybody to praising _his_ filthy acts, inside this building… or I'll consider using that practice you were talking about on your sorry asses: have I been clear enough?" he questioned gravely.

"Yes, sir… we won't say Vicious' name anymore" they agreed at the same time.

"Whose name?" he asked, his mismatched eyes taunting them.

"Sorry! We meant _that_ name…"

"Good boys…" he replied flashing them a smile before disappearing past the sliding doors.

They stood glued to their spots for a few minutes, still scared shitless that he would come back and close them into the same cells to torture them as Vicious would have surely done. But he didn't come back and they where waken up by a familiar voice.

"What happened? Have you seen a ghost or something?" Maxim asked to his partners.

"Mr. Spiegel just warned us about not saying V-_that_ name anymore…" one of them said correcting himself in mid-sentence.

"We were talking about Nemesis and how we would like to do to her what _he_ did to his whores… and Spiegel just scolded us like we were kids… it was almost like he was defending that bitch…" the other continued staring at his now cold coffee.

_'Maybe I'm not the only one knowing Nemesis real identity, right Spiegel?'_ he thought suspiciously, his pale lips tightening into a thin line.

**A/N:** I really hope you liked this one, it was the one I had more fun writing, I don't know why, but it's probably my favorite chap… till now at least… next chapter is still on paper, a series of senseless notes I've written down in hot summer nights that will probably need deciphering (I've never been a master in handwriting… sometimes it takes me a lot to understand what I wrote), so I can't promise anything andI don't know when I'll update next time, but I can tell you that there's just one more chap before THE reunion… I'm sure you got what I'm talking about.

And I wanted to thanks all my reviewers I LOVE you all! And I'll love you even more if you'll review this!


	8. It's been a while

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Cowboy Bebop…

Notes: sorry for the delay, but I've been busy with school and my new obsession for Kagura/Sesshoumaru fics has stolen all the free time I had for writing… and finally even this chapter is edited… a big thanks to my beta Lacey!

_**Angel's Punishment**_

Chapter 7: It's been awhile…

_2074, Chinese District, Tharsis city- Mars-_

The short, old owner of the Chinese herbal shop was sweeping the floor of his little store; he was whistling a joyful tune, noticeably pleased with himself after selling to a rich silly woman what everybody could have recognized as plain grass for ten thousand woolongs, telling her it was a powerful aphrodisiac… poor woman, her husband had to have serious problems down there if she was willing to pay that price for a fistful of dry grass.

Zhang was distracted from his work when he heard the light footsteps of the twenty-six year old woman that lived upstairs coming down. In the past three years she had been like the daughter he'd never had; he had taught her the art of the sword and tried to teach her even some of his secret techniques for making herbal medicines, but she didn't seem too interested in it.

However what worried the old man the most was that even if she seemed like the carefree type of girl, he knew that deep down inside, Faye hid a secret… maybe even more than one. And he couldn't help but get worried every time she left for one of her 'trips' as she called the disappearing acts she performed monthly. From the most recent of these trips she had come home with a large gash on her right shoulder, evidently provoked by the blade of a Japanese weapon, he didn't bother to ask her what had happened because he was sure she would, as always, give him vague answers, or change the subject; she just let him tend her wound and then retire to her room.

"Have you drank the herbal tea I made you, yet?" he asked not looking at her, knowing she would be sitting at the counter looking around for a cigarette.

"You mean the boiled rat shit?" the dark haired lady asked dangling her feet in the air like a little girl.

"It's not boiled rat shit, Faye… it's something that will help your wound heal faster" he corrected her in a fatherly tone that reminded her so much of one of her long lost comrades.

"Yeah, by giving me a ulcer… and even if it's not boiled rat shit, it sure as hell it tastes exactly like it" Faye shot back a small smirk plastered on her crimson lips as she fixed her emerald glare on his little dark eyes. Zhang returned her challenging gaze, uncertain whether to get angry and throw the sweep he held in his hands at her stubborn head, or keep his calm demeanor and ignore her bitchy attitude.

"Whatever you say, my girl… whatever you say" He had chosen the second one.

* * *

_2074, Red Dragon's Headquarters, Spike's Office -Tharsis city - Mars- _

"I had the feeling that she hasn't been doing it randomly… that she could actually have a plan."

"So you think she's killed the men who were there that day…" the tall lanky man said staring out at the lively city from the glass wall of his office.

"Yeah, I just can't believe I've been so blind to not see it before… I should have understood it long ago…" a younger man replied from his position on the large leather armchair a few feet behind him.

"You couldn't know she had a connection with me, Shin… don't blame yourself" Spike's low voice said with understanding.

"No, Spike, it's my fault… I should have thought that you could have friends out of the organization; I should have looked for them and told them you were okay."

Silence filled the room for a few minutes, the sounds of the cars driving on the main road at the feet of the massive skyscraper they were in the only audible noise in the large room. Shin sighed unable to stand the tension between them anymore.

"I'm really sorry, Spike, I just didn't know that there was someone else other than Julia…" his voice was small, but full of sincerity and it held an unspoken request for forgiveness…

"Faye never took Julia's place, Shin, they've always lived in two completely different worlds…" he stated firmly.

Spike had understood that the moment he'd left the Bebop before going to face his fate. Julia had been alive in his dreams, while Faye was part of his reality; and when the two of them had met each other, the two lives he had been living in till that moment had rejoined; the past he had never wanted to let go had resurfaced in that present he had always tried to deny.

And then everything had fallen down like a house of cards, in three days his life had changed more than in three years, in three days everything and everybody from his past had finally let him be free. But nonetheless, he hadn't been allowed to leave this world, along with the people from the past, nor to go back to the people from his present. Maybe someone up there had decided to punish him for being so careless with his life… and maybe it was even about time.

"But that still doesn't change anything. It doesn't depend on you how she felt, Spike… you can't always know who or what other people care for, and you can't decide for them… that's where I was wrong." his friend insisted.

"You're not to blame… I was the one living in a reverie; I was the one that made the mistake of letting other people care for me…" Spike turned to him, his dark mismatched eyes fixed on the other man's dark green irises; he never noticed before that his friend's eyes were the same color as Faye's. He would have never thought that he could actually miss looking into the jaded depths of her eyes, but he really did; he longed to stare into those emerald pools that shone with fierceness and passion, combined a hint of sadness that never left them.

'And I shouldn't have let myself care for them, too…' he added only for his mind to hear.

A light knock on the door broke the moment of meditation the two men were sharing. They both turned to the noise and Spike told his secretary she could enter.

"We have the list you asked for, sir." The young pretty woman said to Spike blushing a little, before handing him some papers. The green haired syndicate leader looked at the papers he now held, confused.

"I don't remember requesting these…" he replied in a calm voice oblivious to the effect that statement was provoking in the young secretary, whose legs were starting to feel a little shaky.

"I've requested it, Spike… it's the list of the people who were there that night," Shin said receiving a thankful look from the woman.

"You can go now, Beth… thank you"

"No problem, sir…" she replied disappearing behind the closing door.

"Looks like you're eager to sit again on that chair…" Spike commented with a smile pointing to the leather armchair behind the expensive wooden desk with the dragon emblem engraved in its front.

"It's not that, Spike!" Shin defended himself.

"Of course not…" his older friend teased. His eyes looked through the names that were listed on the papers, he was at the second page and not a single name was still targeted as alive. It looked like Shin's intuition had been right; Faye was really killing whoever had been in the headquarters that night; it was like he was reading her 'death list'.

Spike's russet eyes stopped as they read a well-known name: Shin Kikuchi. He quickly turned the page in hopes to find other names on it, but there was just a name on the last page, and he didn't need to read the status column for knowing if that person was dead or alive… he had personally seen to Vicious' status three years before.

"I believe I need your help, Spike…" Shin's trembling voice came from behind him, where the younger man had been reading the document. Spike didn't respond him immediately, his mind was working for a plan; he couldn't let Shin in the hands of Faye, but neither he could let Faye in the hands of the Red Dragons… he wouldn't let anybody else die for him, not in this life; but he couldn't even do it all by himself.

'That's when old friends come in handy…' he thought smiling mischievously.

"It's me the one who will need your help, my friend…" he finally replied.

"You're joking right? I mean, Maho's pregnant I can't-" Shin's protest was cut off by his older friend's voice.

"Don't get yourself wet, Shin… just trust me. I'm going out to get some outer help, get yourself ready" he said picking up the jacket he had discarded before and headed to the door.

"Oh, and congratulations…" he grinned before slipping out of the office leaving a stunned Shin inside.

"T- thanks…"

* * *

_2074, Ganymede's orbit._

Hours later Spike was sitting in the cockpit of the Swordfish II, an expired cigarette dangling from his thin lips as his hands grasped the commands, speeding as much as possible. He had missed riding his 'baby'; it made him feel like nothing had happened, if he closed his eyes he could almost hear Jet yelling at him through the communicator after a bounty gone bad, with Ed and Ein barking in the background… yeah, Ed barked too, and quite a lot… He could almost hear the sound of the Redtail's engines beside him as Faye took it to the max speed challenging him. The ex bounty hunter turned his head to the left almost expecting to see his beautiful comrade face as she stuck her tongue out at him in a childish gesture; but his eyes met just the infinity of space.

Finally the spaceship reached Ganymede's atmosphere and slowly passed through it to appear in the azure sky of the Jupiter's satellite. Spike looked down at the water that covered the greatest part of the planet searching for the familiar shape of the Bebop at the docks. The Swordfish still had the device that permitted him to find the old spaceship wherever it was; he knew that to find Ed he just needed to digit her name in a web search engine and he would find her, but he kind of felt the urge to see his old friends face to face.

He spotted the Bebop and landed on its deck smoothly, like always. He took a deep breath before opening the cockpit and jumping out of the pilot-seat, his hand reached inside his pocket for a lighter, a normal yellow lighter that he had stolen from one of his men, it was not his beloved Zippo but always better than no lighter at all. He lightened the cig between his lips and inhaled deeply; his eyes scanned the deck and noticed that there were clothes lines full of wet garments drying under the sun light, Spike also noticed that there were an excessive amount of clothes considering that only Jet lived on the ship.

He shrugged his shoulders and started walking towards the hangar, as he was passing a large white sheet something hit his leg pretty hard; the ex-bounty hunter looked down and saw a little figure wrapped in the white sheet clinging at his black pants. Spike arched an eyebrow amused and reached down to uncover the kid that was sitting on his foot; two warm brown curious eyes looked up at the taller man.

"Gotcha!" the brown haired little boy exclaimed grinning.

"Hm?"

"You wanted to kidnap Mr. Banana!" the kid accused pointing to a monkey puppet hanging with the clothes.

"Not exactly, kiddo… I'm here to speak with Jet," he said trying to sound convincing.

"I'll get you dad… but keep away from Mr. Banana, okay?" he replied threateningly before running off toward the hangar. Spike smiled to himself remembering how Jet had always played the father role, even if the 'children' he had to look after were in their twenties.

'So the lonely Black Dog has finally settled down with a family on his own…' he said to himself waiting for his old friend to join him outside.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Inside the ship Jet was pacing around the room frantically.

"Are you sure he has green hair?" he asked again to the four years old kid who was now sitting on the couch watching some cartoon on TV.

"Yeah, he has fluffy green hair and is really tall and thin!" the boy repeated for the third time.

"And he asked about me?"

"Yup!"

"Are you sure he said nothing else, Matt?"

"Sure!" the kid said starting to get annoyed with his father's questions.

Jet passed a hand on his bald head as his brain absorbed the news he had just gathered from the little boy sitting on the couch. He couldn't believe it; how could he be still alive? And why waiting all this time before letting his friends know? How could he have been so selfish to let them think he was dead for three long years?

'Why don't you go out and ask him?' his subconscious suggested him.

'What if it's just a relative that looks like him… maybe Spike had a brother' he replied.

'Just go out and see it yourself…'

Jet decided to listen to his conscience; after all it was thanks to it that he now had a family. His feet took him to the hangar and finally when he reached the metal door that opened onto the deck he took a deep breath and turned the handle ready to face whoever was on the other side.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spike heard the cracking sound of the heavy metal door of the hangar open and looked toward it, he could see the tall figure of his old comrade coming in his direction and when Jet stopped a few feet away from him he let a smirk appear on his lips.

"That kid surely has a lot of hair for being yours, Jet…" the lanky ex-cowboy teased taking off the sunglasses to look the man in front of him in the eyes.

Jet was far from amused by the joke of his thought-to-be-dead partner; he stood there staring into his mismatched eyes unable to decide whether punch him or hug him. Even if now he was sure it was Spike he was facing, there was something different in him; first of all he wasn't wearing his blue suit anymore, but black pants that seemed expensive and a dark red silk shirt with the sleeves rolled up at his elbows, and a loose black tie around his neck. And secondly he noticed a difference in his eyes; in the past when they laughed about something Spike's eyes remained cold, almost distant while his lips turned into his trademark smirk. But now the lost look seemed to have disappeared, his partner's mismatched irises were warmer, if he didn't know better he would have said they looked full of life.

"Actually, he isn't my son …" the ex-cop replied truthfully. Even if he loved Matt as if he was his own, he couldn't deny it, especially since he knew it would have caught off-guard the lanky man standing in front of him. And his statement had truly left his friend speechless. But Jet didn't really feel like congratulating with himself and having a little party inside his head for succeeding in replying to one of Spike's smart-ass comments; he was far more concerned on how a certain somebody would react to the news.

"Does Faye know?" he asked seriously.

"That's why I'm here…" Spike answered throwing his expired cigarette in the water.

"She's not-"

"I know…" the ex-bounty hunter cut off not letting his friend finish.

"So, why are you here, Spike? Why coming back after three years of silence?" there, he finally had asked it. If he waited some more his head would have exploded, he couldn't keep all the questions to himself anymore.

"I know you've seen me go through pretty difficult situations in my life, Jet… but walking here while I was comatose is too much even for me…" the green haired man replied with a bitter smile staring at his friend. He was starting to feel a little hot under the sun and he looked with envy at Jet's attire: khaki shorts, a blue ISSP t-shirt and a pair of flip-flops.

"Are you going to let me in, or do we have to get a sunstroke out here?" he finally asked feeling a bead of sweat run down his brow.

"Let's go inside…" Jet said motioning for the hangar door.

Spike followed his friend inside and wasn't surprised to find that nothing had changed; there were parts of spaceship everywhere, the Hammerhead parked near a blue station wagon that Jet had probably bought after the marriage, and he also noticed there were toys piled up in a corner, that surely belonged to the kid he met earlier.

"I couldn't bring myself to throw it away…" the older man started pointing to the yellow couch that now occupied a once empty space in the hangar.

"It's a piece of history…" Spike smiled flopping down onto it.

"Every time I look at it I could see you laying there sleeping; or Faye reading one of her meaningless fashion magazines glad to occupy your usual spot… it's like having you two back here, like nothing happened" Jet explained with a lost look in his dark blue eyes. It felt weird being there telling him those things, it was almost like talking to a ghost… hell, sometimes he had even spoken to the damn piece of furniture as if he was actually talking with Spike.

"Jet, where's the crazy kid?" the supposed-to-be-dead man asked out of the blue.

"You mean Ed?" the bald man asked waiting for his ex-partner to nod before continuing.

"She's out shopping with Alisa, but she should be here anytime now…"

Spike arched an eyebrow at the mention of Jet's ex-girlfriend name; even if he wasn't the type of guy that liked to poke his nose into other people's business, he didn't forget that name… after all, it wasn't like Jet had had lots of women…

"Yeah, Spike, that Alisa… her boyfriend left her while she was pregnant with his child. I helped her out during the pregnancy and, well, one thing leads to another and I ended up a married man…" he said noticing his friends questioning look.

"Really touching…" Spike commented crossing his long legs onto the metal coffee table in front of him.

"Well sorry if I'm not the tragic hero you surely are, Spike! Besides, what do you want from Ed?"

"I need her help…"

"And?" Jet insisted knowing he surely didn't need her to fix a computer.

"Faye's in deep shit, Jet, more than she's ever been…"

'These damn kids will never grow up…' Jet thought to himself sitting on the coffee table opposite Spike, ready to hear about whatever mess the purple-haired gambler had put herself into.

Jet listened as Spike told him everything about Nemesis, about her killings, and how he found out that Faye and Nemesis were the same woman. Though Jet was shocked to hear that his younger partner was now the leader of the very same syndicate he despised so much, he didn't say a word, he thought that it probably was already difficult for him, and Spike surely didn't need somebody asking him about it.

The two old friends were interrupted by female giggles coming towards the hangar door; Spike could also hear the familiar barking of the Welsh corgi that was both Ed's playmate and Faye's confidant. The door opened and three figures, two human and a dog, entered the room, Alisa noticed the stranger's green mop of hair resting on the back of the couch and asked,

"Jet, why haven't you told me we would have a guest?"

Spike turned his head in the direction of the voice, which had spoken and he recognized the tall dark haired woman carrying two bags full of groceries; he smiled slightly to her before looking at her side where his eyes met the amber ones of a teen he almost thought to not know.

Ed stared at the man sitting on the couch, a man everybody had told her to be dead. She felt tears swell up under her eyes and bit her lip trying to keep them from falling; she wanted so much to run to him and hug him like she would have done years before, but she wasn't the same crazy girl anymore. She had grown up; she had lost her childish innocence, that innocence that had prevented her from being hurt by her father's carelessness towards her, that innocence that had closed her up in her own world where nobody could hurt her anymore… and instead of feeling happy of seeing Spike there, alive and well, she felt anger, delusion and a sense of betrayal that she had felt just once before.

The sound of two bags hitting the metallic floor startled everybody in the room, and before they could even realize what happened Ed had already reached her room and shut the door loudly after her. The three adults were frozen on their spots; they had never seen the girl acting so… 'normal' before.

"I'll go talk to her…" Jet said standing from his position on the metal coffee table.

"No… I'll go" Spike's voice objected as he got on his feet and trotted over the direction Ed had run off.

"You've never been good with kids, Spike…" Jet commented at his retreating back.

"A kid could understand another kid better than any adult, Jet… it's scientifically proven" Spike said with a smirk referring to the ex-cop habit of calling him and Faye 'kids.'

"Whatever…"

The lanky ex-cowboy walked through the dark hallways of the Bebop without needing any light, he knew them like the back of his hand, the only problem was that he didn't really know where to find the girl. The hacker had never had a real room during the time he was living on the ship, she mostly slept on the floor with Ein or rarely in Faye's room when she was out to some horse races…

'Faye's room?' he repeated in his mind; he stopped his pace and turned towards the room that was once occupied by the emerald eyed 'shrew woman', as he was used to calling her. Spike reached the metallic door and tried to open it just to find it locked, he smiled inwardly knowing that his intuition had been right. Ed was there.

"Ed? Are you in there?" he asked in hopes to get a reply.

"No!" come a muffled voice from inside.

"C'mon Ed, I need to talk to you about Faye…" he hoped that Faye's name might get her curious.

"Go talk with her…" she retorted angrily sounding very different from the willing girl she used to be.

"That's the problem… I don't know where to find her" Spike replied truthfully, but there was still no response on the other side of the door; right then dealing with a thirteen year-old hyperactive Ed seemed a lot simpler than having an argument with a sixteen year-old temperamental Ed.

"I know you're helping her, Ed… she wouldn't be able to gain access to confidential information on the Red Dragon's archive without your assistance" he decided to get straight to the point.

"I won't help you, Spike-person…" Ed said resolutely not even trying to defend herself from his accusation.

"You're not helping just me, but even Faye… more than you've helped her till this moment."

"I promised Faye-Faye this was a secret between us…"

'Well, looks like it's not a secret anymore…' Spike commented to himself.

"You've never been able to keep a secret, Ed…" he replied recalling that episode with the fat madman; Faye had made her promise to keep secret the mail he had received by the serial killer, but as soon as he asked about it Ed had told him without any problem.

"Maybe… but I'm still mad at you, Spike-person" she insisted; but slowly her determination was fading; Spike's voice had never sounded so calm and friendly, in the past it had been calm but with a hint of coldness, he never seemed to care about nothing and no one around him.

"I don't see any reasons for you being mad at me" he stated shifting his position and leaning his back to the cold wall of the Bebop.

"You've hurt Faye-Faye…" her voice stated clearly and accusatorily before going on with her speech "she told me that it was time for the both of us to find the place where we belonged, that's why I left, I found that place… and Faye found it too, she belonged on the Bebop, where there were people she cared for… her house on Earth was just a bunch of ruins… you were the only home she had, and you left her, Spike… just like my father left me. Even if I acted like I didn't care, I was hurt when he left… I understand what Faye has been through, and I won't betray her faith, too…"

"I didn't want to hurt her… and I don't plan to" Spike said in a low voice.

"Of course you will! You just want to catch her so you can go back to your syndicate with all the glory!"

"It's not like that, Ed…" he tried to explain.

"I don't believe you…" the girl replied but with less fierceness than before.

Moments of silence followed Ed's last line, there was nothing more to say, or at least nothing more they wanted to say. After all, he could catch Faye on his own without her help, he just needed to put a few guards on Shin's flat... right then the words of hate towards Nemesis pronounced by his men a few days before came to his mind, and he repeated to himself that there was no way he would let them treat her like that.

"Faye's next aim is Shin Kikuchi …" they always say that facts are heavier than words, so he would give her facts.

"I know about him…" Ed replied in a flat tone.

"No, Ed, you don't know everything…" Spike decided that it was time to put the word 'end' to their debate; this would be his last shot. "He was the one who helped me three years ago, he saved my life and I'm sure he would do it again. He doesn't deserve to die. Besides his girlfriend's pregnant… how do you think Faye will react after finding out she killed the man who saved me? Do you believe she'll be happy to know she left an unborn baby without its innocent father?"

There was another moment of silence between the two; Spike really hoped he had finally convinced her to help him, because he surely wouldn't be able to respond to another one of her accusations. In three years Ed had surely made a great change… or maybe she had always been like that, she had just been really good in hiding it. Spike's wondering stopped abruptly as his ears caught the sound of the door being unlocked; he moved from his position in front of it and waited for Ed to exit from the room that once was Faye's.

As the sixteen-year-old girl made her way past the door her ex-comrade stared at her, taking in all the changes she had gone through in the three years he hadn't seen her. Ed was definitely taller, about five foot ten; she was wearing a pair of jeans cut offs and a yellow t-shirt that matched with the yellow Converse's on her feet; her longer hair were pulled back in a high ponytail but some bangs rested on her forehead. She looked positively like a girl now, there were no chances that people could question her gender anymore.

Finally Ed looked up at Spike; all her doubts disappearing when she noticed a strange warmth in his mismatched eyes, something she never seen before; she was happy that he was alive, and she was even more glad that he was there for Faye. She had always looked up at her like a big sister, after all there were just ten years of difference between them; and now that she had finally found a family that loved her, she wanted nothing more for Faye than to find a family of her own. That's why she helped Faye in avenging Spike, because she hoped that after killing the people that had made her suffer, maybe her 'big sis' would let heal the bleeding wound on her heart and be free again, or at least come back to the Bebop and help her out in this messy teenager life she had to face everyday.

"So how can Radical Edward help you, Mr. Spiegel?"

**A/N**: well, I hope you liked this chapter as much as you liked the others… I don't know when I'll be able to update next time, surely not the first two weeks of December… I'll be impossibly busy with school…

Anyway, I wanted to giave a big hug and a huge thanks to each one of the special people that have spent some of their precious time to read and review my fic… THANKS!


	9. Falling

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Cowboy Bebop or any of its characters…

Notes: sorry for the long wait but last months have been hell and my writing vein has been drained… this chapter turned out a little longer than what I've planned… blame it to the Dresden Dolls' songs that make me over-productive…

Btw, THANKS TO ALL MY WONDERFUL REVIEWERS! (even to who told me to move my ass…)

_**Angel's Punishment**_

Chapter 8: Falling

_2074, Shin's flat, Tharsis city- Mars-_

"Are you saying me that you're gonna play the bait to catch that assassin!"

Shin sweat-dropped; he knew that telling her about his newest assignment wouldn't be a stroll in the park, but he shouldn't have forgotten that pregnancy made women moody, and Maho being a smartass on her own, was even moodier than any other woman.

"Well, it's not-" he tried to speak but was interrupted by her hysteric voice

"And you say Spike is like a big brother to you! What kind of man sends his little brother to the wolf's liar?" she accused knowing that Spike had always been Shin's weak spot, insulting his best friend was like kneeing him in the groin.

"Spike knows what he's doing… I trust him" he promptly replied trying not to let out any signs of the doubts that were slowly pooling in his thoughts.

"But you can't trust her…" she stated in a softer tone, lowering her gaze to the marble floor. Shin looked at her, he wanted so much to tell her that he was as scared as she was, to explain her the whole story. But what could he say? Spike had been so mysterious; he had just said that this Faye was an old comrade… not even a friend; but he felt that there was something more, something that his older friend hadn't told him, something that maybe Spike didn't want to acknowledge even to himself.

"She's not the demon they told her to be…"

There he said it. He had lied to her for the first time; from what he had seen of the people Nemesis had slaughtered in the past years, she was even worse than a demon… sure, she might have her reasons to kill the RD men, but she must find some satisfaction in the brutal act. After all if, as Spike had said, she was just an ex-partner the anger for losing him couldn't be so strong to guide her to do such calculated and cruel assassination.

"Ok… just remember that you have somebody in here who will need his daddy" the raven haired woman said placing a hand on her still rather flat belly, her indigo eyes glistening with unshed tears as they stared intensely into his deep green irises. Shin couldn't help but take a step forward and wrap his arms around her slender waist.

"I won't forget it…" he whispered in her ear, as her small hands gripped tightly at his shirt.

* * *

_19:00, The Bebop - Ganymede's Orbit _

Spike was having dinner on the Bebop like the old times, the only difference was that Alisa's cooking skills were absolutely incomparable to Jet's… he would have never thought he could taste such a appetizing dish sitting on the yellow couch. He had reached his ex-comrades to get some information from Ed about Nemesis' last movements and plan something to protect Shin and at the same time catch Faye.

"Yeah Ed, I've already talked with Shin… his girlfriend left two days ago to stay with a friend so we don't have to worry about her… do you have an idea about when she plans to get in action?" Spike said between mouthfuls of the typical Ganymede's deliciousness on his plate

"I don't know when she'll go to him, she's never given me any details… she just makes a quick call after the murder so I get into the security system and erase all the tapes from the cameras…" Ed replied from the stairs

"Can't you even try to sort out how much time it'll take to her to reach Tharsis from her actual position? You've talked with her three or four hours ago… I don't think she's already left"

"Impossible… we use e-mail to communicate and I can't trace the location from where she's sent it… it's the only way so they wouldn't be able to catch even me if they got her" the red haired teenager explained

"You said Faye had a bleeding wound on her right arm when you saw her in the graveyard two weeks ago... I believe she'll be more cautious this time, she'll most likely attack in the weekend… but you know that she's unpredictable, so you'd better watch out" Jet said sipping his red wine.

"There will be guards watching the flat from tomorrow morning…" Spike reassured him "plus I'll be staying somewhere in the building for the week so when she'll come I can protect her…"

"You'd better sleep well tonight, considering the difficult week that awaits you…" Alisa commented

"I'll try…"

* * *

_20:00, Tharsis City - Mars_

Faye was staring at the door of her soon-to-be last victim's flat; she had noticed just then that it was the same apartment building where she had killed the first one of the RD members on her black book.

'_This building is probably property of the syndicate… I knew I had to organize the list by the domicile location and not randomly…' _she thought to herself sighing at her mistake.

After taking a look at the hallway in both directions the dark haired assassin pressed her forefinger on the ringing button and waited for her victim to come out and face his destiny. She knew she had been too impulsive this time, she should have waited at least two days, but the thought of finally seeing even the last name cancelled was too inviting; and knowing that Shin Kikuchi had a flat in the same city were she lived surely didn't help the urge of getting on her motorbike and reach him.

"Coming!" she heard a male voice calling from the other side of the door. She smiled to herself; it looked like she wasn't the only impulsive person in the building… she had made a good choice following her instinct; she really had caught him by surprise. She took another glace at her surroundings looking for any signs of guards, maybe after her first appearance in the building three years before they had mounted a guard over the place. But she didn't see anybody… well, good for her.

Faye didn't care if there were security cameras on this time, she didn't care if they find out who she was, if they would catch her, torture her, kill her… she finally would have her revenge and then she could die in peace, she would be free to be with him again. All she hoped was that she didn't have to fight; she really wasn't in the right mood for that kind of things today, she just wanted to slice the bastard in two and, if they didn't get to catch her even this time, go home having a shower before sitting on her bed thinking about what she would do in the future, or better what she wouldn't do in the future…

--------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- ---------------

Shin hurriedly reached the door.

'_This is probably Mark needing someone to feed him… that shameless freeloader' _he said to himself, knowing that at least twice a week his friend knocked at his door inviting himself to dinner with him and Maho. But when he took a look into the peephole his eyes popped out of their sockets and he forgot every thought about Mark and dinner.

"Holy shit! What's she doing here!" he whispered to no one as he took a few steps backward staring at the door in horror; his firs instinct was to reach the window and jump out in the street, but suddenly he remembered that he lived on the eleventh floor and it would have been rather difficult to survive from jumping at that height.

Shin's green eyes scanned the room for something he could use to knock her out, but when he saw the phone something in his mind clicked: he had to call Spike. He reached for the wireless lying on the leather couch and quickly composed the number of the leader's office. He was pacing around the room as he waited for someone to answer at the other side of the line.

"Hello, Spike Spiegel's office. How can I help you?" asked a gentle female voice

"Beth, it's Shin get me Spike immediately…" he told her

"Mr. Spiegel's not here, Mr. Kikuchi…" Beth replied quietly

"And where the hell is he!" he asked anxiously

"At dinner with some old friends… by the way, do you know if he knows about the party?"

"I don't have time for parties now, Beth! Find out where he is and tell him that she's already here and to move his ass..."

"but-" she couldn't even finish her sentence that he had already hang up.

Shin threw the phone on the couch and when he heard a second ring he looked back at the door petrified. His mind suggested it was better that he opened the door before she started to get suspicious, tore the door down and kill him without a second thought; but his feet wouldn't move, he wanted so much to go to his bedroom pick out his gun and shot at the door with the hope of hitting the woman behind the wooden barrier, but he knew it would have been a dumb-ass thing. He wouldn't have a chance against the woman who had killed off many of the RD most trained killers. The only thing he could do was play for time waiting for Spike to get there and help him out; till that moment he would try and distract her maybe asking her some question to keep her mind out of the real reason she came to him, after all it was common knowledge that the whole female population of the universe had a natural predisposition for talking…

Shin gathered up the little courage he had left and took a deep breath before his almost shaking hand gripped the handle and opened the door coming face to face with a beautiful face. She was standing opposite him, emerald eyes staring with interest at his stunned face; he was taken aback by her unique beauty, as Spike had said she was nothing like Julia, she had no sign of the angelic features that anybody could immediately recognize in the blonde woman that once had hold both Spike's and Vicious' hearts.

'_So this is the infamous Faye Valentine…' _

Her silky dark violet hair reached long past her shoulder, the deep green eyes were exalted by her long dark lashes and her bloody red lips were synonymous to perfection; he noticed that she had something of Oriental in her features but it wasn't so obvious. She was wearing blue jeans and a black double breasted mid-thigh length coat, a silky deep crimson scarf was wrapped around her neck and she was wearing black leather gloves. Shin swallowed when he noticed the sheathed katana she held in her left hand, and suddenly he returned his gaze to her face almost afraid that if he looked at it for too long she might think about using it right then.

"You're Shin, right?" Faye questioned looking at the kind features of the young man facing her; she wasn't actually expecting to meet somebody so young; he had to be around her age, if not younger, it was the first member of the RD she met that wasn't surely over his thirty.

"Y-yeah, in what can I help you?" he replied trying to sound sure of himself, but failing on the first word

"Oh, it's a long story… can I come in?" she asked sweetly

"Sure, Miss…" he moved to the side and opened the door wider so she could step inside the flat.

* * *

Meanwhile Beth had found Spike's communicator's number and was waiting on the line to hear his voice answering. 

"What's the problem, Beth?" his deep voice replied on the receiver

"Good evening, Mr. Spiegel… Mr. Kikuchi has just called saying to tell you that she's already there and to-" she coughed uncomfortably

"And to what?" he asked getting worried

"Well, he said to move your posterior, sir… he seemed a little upset"

"Ok, Beth, thanks for the call…"

"Wait, Mr. Spiegel!" she managed to speak before he hung up

"Something else?" he questioned

"I just wanted to ask if you've heard about the party-" she started but got interrupted for the second time that day

"We'll talk later… bye" he said dismissing her without any second thought.

Beth stared outraged at the receiver and let out an angry growl, she was getting tired of working with those action men. All that mattered to them was killing, dealing with drugs and other illegal things, and being surrounded by voluptuous women; while she was left with the burdening task of organizing grand, ultra-expensive parties so that they could show off all their dirty money.

But this time they were gonna get it, they would learn not to sign papers without even read what was written on them; the party was already set for the day after and she would have forced them to attended to it even if it was the last thing she did in her life.

* * *

"Faye is already there, I've got to go!" Spike said grabbing his trench coat and walking towards the hangar 

"Thanks for the company, Spike!" Alisa said from the kitchen

"See ya, uncle Spike" Matt echoed from the toy room

"I've told you she is unpredictable, but this is kinda extreme…" Jet said following him into the hangar

"Faye-Faye is probably anxious to put an end to it…" Ed replied

"Ed, I need you to connect the Swordfish with the cameras in Shin's flat, the audio will be sufficient… open the hangar gates, Jet… I'm leaving right now!" Spike said ignoring their discussion and jumping on his red ship but before he could close the cockpit his older friend threw something at him; he caught it and looked at the gun in his grasp

"It's loaded with tranquilizer darts… powerful ones" Jet replied with a smirk to his friend unspoken question

"Remember the promise, Spike-person… don't hurt her!" Ed shouted as she worked on her laptop sitting on the hangar floor, while Ein danced around her barking.

"We'll see…" he said to himself waving to his ex-comrades before grasping the cloches of the Swordfish and shooting off in the sky.

* * *

Faye went past Shin and into the sumptuous flat; he could feel a shiver ran down his spine as the pointy tip of the black sheath touched his leg, in other occasions he would have gripped the sword and disarmed her, but right now his nerves was so tense it would have been a suicide. 

"Well, I believe you know who I am, and what I'm doing here…" she said quietly when she heard the door closing

"M-maybe" he replied in a little voice, she turned to him with a small smile on her lips

"I'll give you a hint, since I feel particularly happy today… I'm here to finish a work started years ago; you're the last on my list… I hope you're not offended by that…"

"Oh, no… no offense at all…" he didn't know what to say, it was kind of difficult trying to keep on a conversation with somebody who had came purposely to kill you off; but his survival instinct kicked in at the right moment and he found his voice again

"I just wanted to ask you a question, if you don't mind…" Shin looked at her with big puppy eyes, if she would accept to answer his question maybe he would have a bit more time to live

"Sure, but please don't start begging for your life… your colleagues had already tried the pity-card, and you know well where it led them…" she warned coldly

"I- I wanted to ask you why are you doing this? Why are you killing us?"

'_Nice try, Shin, now she'll kill you just for the idiotic question…' _he mentally scolded himself

Faye seemed to ponder a bit around the subject and Shin was sure that if she wouldn't answer his question soon, he would have died of heart failure. The dark haired assassin took off her coat and laid it on the nearer armchair, then she discarded her gloves and finally she sat down on the cushion and crossed her long legs busying herself looking at the black decorated sheath of her katana. Shin couldn't believe at his eyes, his going-to–be-murderer was sitting in his house looking as if she was on a normal visit to one of her friends.

"That's actually a good question, Shin… you're the first one that's not only concerned about his worthless life… it's a rare behavior for somebody who's gonna met his fate in less than an hour" she said finally looking up to his eyes, noticing they were the same color of hers.

--------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- ---------------

Spike was listening at their conversation from the Swordfish, the audio was not the best, there were some disturbing noises that cut off completely some words but generally he could work out what they were saying.

"_I just wanted to ask you a question, if you don't mind…" _he heard his friend's voice asking to Faye and arched and eyebrow wondering what his friend was up to; it was a little out of character for Shin to be so daring

"_Sure, but please don't start begging for your life… your colleagues had already tried the pity-card, and you know well where it led them…"_ that was surely something he wasn't expecting from someone like Faye, it seemed more like something one of Vicious' men could have said. And her voice seemed so cold and toneless, so different from her usual almost-theatrical attitude; maybe something had really changed in her personality, maybe his wish of getting things back as they were before Vicious and Julia's deaths would remain just a hope.

"_I wanted to ask you why are you doing this? Why are you killing us?"_ Spike smiled to himself… Shin was really excelling himself today; Faye was the kind of woman that, if in the right mood, could go on hours answering a question like that. The ex-bounty hunter still remembered the long talk she had with Ein about her past, while he was in the bathroom; he had to say she really had a gift for story telling. The moment of silence that followed Shin's question got Spike worried; if she wasn't the same woman anymore she wouldn't even have answered the question, and that was a problem… a serious one.

"_That's actually a good question, Shin… you're the first one that's not only concerned about his worthless life… it's a rare behavior for somebody who's gonna met his fate in less than an hour"_ his smile turned into a satisfied smirk, even if her reply was still extremely cold he could hear the interest in her tone, now he was sure that he would have arrived in time for saving his friend and stopping his long lost beautiful partner from signing her own death's contract.

--------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- ---------------

"Thanks-" he didn't know why he had thanked her, but mostly he hated the fact that he almost blow off his cover because he was about to say her real name out loud; and actually she interpreted his pause as a way to ask her name, and surprisingly enough she replied

"Faye… my name's Faye" she told him evenly. She didn't really know what it was with this guy, but he made her feel at ease, he wasn't like all the others, full of themselves and with that cold stare typical of a man that had done nothing but killing for all his life. In her eyes Shin looked like the shy guy that would help old women crossing the road, rescue kittens from the trees and save pretty girls from molesters; he had this well-mannered-knight-in-shining-armor look on his face that she just couldn't help but notice. Perhaps it was this difference from the other members of the RD that made her act around him almost as if he was an old friend, and she really needed someone to talk to lately.

"Oh… thanks, Faye" he was shocked to hear that she had actually shared her name with him, he felt almost as if she trusted him

"No problems… but you don't need to stand there like a statue, don't worry I'm not going to play any tricks on you… "

"ah, ok…" he said a little embarrassed taking some steps backwards till his calves hit the cushion of the armchair and he fell onto it under Faye's amused gaze; he muttered an apology and adjusted his position on the cushion.

"Now that you're at safe distance from me and my sword, I believe I can answer your question…" she said smiling knowingly having noticed how he hadn't turned his back to her reaching the armchair.

"So, Shin, you don't seem the kind of guy that joins a syndicate like the Red Dragon by your own choice… I'm sure your childhood hasn't been one of the best periods of your life, right?"

"Right…" he said absentmindedly

"Raised up in an orphanage and sold to a criminal organization to become a killer… you know how it is to feel lonely and impotent even over your own life" she said looking straight into his eyes

"I haven't been the luckiest of the children…" he replied lost in the depths of her eyes and in the sensual understanding tone of her voice

"Well, my childhood was the exact opposite of yours… what I wanted I got; I was a spoiled little brat grown up by a too permissive and sickening rich family. Being an only daughter my parents would do anything I wanted, so when I was twenty they got the great idea of buying me a space flight in one of the newest shuttle… but there was an accident and their spoiled princess turned into a sleeping beauty. I've been in a cryogenic tank for over fifty years and when I finally woke up six years ago I didn't even remember who I was…" she sighed and looked down at her hands a bitter smile on her lips; Shin was staring at her with a rapt look, the woman who was supposed to kill him was actually telling him about her life… and it didn't seem a happy tale at all.

"But looking back I think it's been better that way. That naïve innocent girl couldn't have put up with being chased around the whole Solar System by creditors, cops and bounty hunters… she wouldn't have survived being drugged up, raped and humiliated in any possible way… that Faye wouldn't have survived in 2068, but Faye Valentine..." the dark haired woman let out a low chuckle that kind of scared the brown haired RD member sitting opposite her

"She knows no bounds, fears or even dignity… she's a free spirit, a survivor, a though ass bitch without any care in the world… or at least that's what she thought she was"

"And what made her change her mind?" Shin suddenly asked too caught up in the narration to notice he said it out loud

"One day she met a cowboy in a casino, she messed up his bounty, robbed him off of his money and fuel and then run away… simple routine for someone like her; but Fate crossed their roads again and from that day everything changed. She invited herself to live with him and his comrades and she started feeling something inside of her; something that had been dozing off for decades started stirring inside her mind and heart… it was a sense of belonging; the need of finding someone who cares for you, someone you care for; it was the wish of having a place to came back, a place to call _home_. And she started to believe that maybe she had finally found it, she convinced herself that the bunch of odd people she lived with were in a sort of way her family… and she was happy, after three years of loneliness and wandering she was finally happy. But as they say-"

"Nothing good last long…" he completed her sentence.

"She made the mistake of falling in love… you know Shin, love is a selfish emotion, you feel like the object of you affections is only yours and nobody or nothing has the right to take it away from you… but nobody could decide for someone else's life, even less if your love is not returned… I couldn't do anything to save him, so I just let him go; I let him get his revenge 'cause I knew that I would have done the same in his situation… and he never came back, he left and he took along that piece of my heart that had finally started to unfrozen, that part of me that still was able to hope, to love, to live"

Shin was starting to feel sick; that girl sitting in his living room was everything but a demon… she was a betrayed soul, a lonely spirit that had been looking for someone to love for so much time just to have it taken away the moment she found it. His willpower was starting to give in; he felt the urge to tell her that it was all a lie, that the man she so desperately loved was still alive, that she would see him again that same night. But what could he say? As she had said, hope was a stranger feeling to her, how could she believe him after three years of grief?

"Well, Shin, here's the answer to your question" he snapped off of his wondering and focused his gaze on her

"I'm doing this because I'm selfish and unforgiving, because you and your likes took him away from me… I'm doing this because I want him back… I need him back… but I'm not God, I can't revive the dead, all I can do to be with him again is die, but not before I get my revenge… my soul wouldn't be able to rest in peace till even the last of you has let out his last breath…" she stood and slowly unsheathed the silver blade of the katana

"I came here to punish you for participating in killing the only man I've ever loved, but to tell you the truth for the first time I feel unsure, you're different from the other of your kind…" Faye stared intently at the smooth surface of her weapon, her green eyes reflecting clearly on it.

"But I won't stop now… I hope you can understand…" her lips tightened in a resolute line and her eyes looked straight into the depths of his forest green irises. Her lithe figure stepped forward towards him with a godlike grace and she whispered a single word before gripping with both hands the hilt of the sword

"I'm sorry…"

Shin's eyes widened as he instinctively retired into the back of the armchair bringing his arms to protect his frame. He really couldn't die like that; he had made a promise to Maho, to their child, and he wouldn't give it up.

"Wait, Faye! He's not dead!" he shouted the first thing that came to his mind, the only thing that probably would stop her.

--------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- ---------------

Spike had just landed on the roof of the building; he had listened to the whole conversation that his two friends had into Shin's flat, and he was devastated. All he wanted was to reach the damn door and put an end to that foolishness… yeah, foolishness… it was the only word that could completely give a sense to what had been happening since the first day he entered into the Red Dragons. His whole life had been a failure, the people he cared for had fallen one by one; he was worse than a disease, anything he had touched, sooner or later, inexorably either died or get mad, just like happened with Julia, Mao, Annie, Vicious and Lin; even people he met for a few hours had gotten the same Fate, like Rocco Bonaro, Katerina or Gren.

But he couldn't forgive himself if he let two of the most important people in his present life destroy each other for one of his many mistakes... not in his new life. He shouldn't have left the Bebop to go after Vicious; he should have stayed with the people who really cared for him, with the ones that were always there to stitch him up when he got back beat up from a bounty. Spike knew it hadn't been the best moment for leaving, Jet had a gunshot wound on his leg, and Faye's mind had been under a lot of stress after getting back her memories and discovering that she was really alone in the world; but his selfishness had won over and he had went away without looking back.

Spike rushed down the stairs slowing down a bit just to look at the indication of the floor, he knew he could have used the elevator, but it gave him the feeling of stillness, of passiveness; while running down the steps was a lot more exciting and it was a good way to get rid of the load of adrenaline that was flowing through his veins. The messy green haired man stopped when he reached the eleventh floor and gave a quick look at the surroundings to remember himself where his friend lived. Finally he recognized Shin's door and run to it knocking loudly on its wooden surface.

"Open up, Shin! It's Spike!" he yelled hoping that would bring Faye's attention out of her actual intentions till he tore the damn door down.

--------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- ---------------

"Open up, Shin! It's Spike!"

Her jade eyes widened as her ears picked up the familiar voice that had shouted from the other side of the door, but she knew it was just a trick of her mind, and what Shin had said, had intensified the effect.

"Looks like I was wrong about you… you're just like all of them" the violet haired woman said coldly feeling betrayed; he had used her weakness just like Morimoto had, but this time she wouldn't fall for it… even if the whole syndicate was out of that door she would have completed her task, she had spent the last three years of her life onto this mission and she wasn't going to give up now that she could already see the finishing line.

Shin was as shocked as she was, finally Spike had arrived… not really at the best moment, but at least it wasn't too late. Her bitter words hadn't really hit a soft spot in him… sure, he felt bad for her, but soon she would see that he wasn't lying. His eyes were no longer fixed on the blade ready to strike onto his body, but to the door that was about to give out under Spike's pushing.

The katana was already moving when a loud crash echoed in the room and after that a gunshot roared into the walls. Faye's grasp on the sword failed and the weapon fell to the ground unmoving, her lips let out a pained sigh as her eyes stared at the dart on her left shoulder; her right hand moved to take off the stinging object that was slowly but efficiently releasing into her body the sedative liquid. A few tears escaped her closed eyes as she threw the dart on the ground before she opened them back again to look at the one who had interrupted her, she wanted to memorize his face in her mind because he would pay for doing that to her.

"Faye…" Spike called softly her name when he noticed her stare finally fixing on his figure; he immediately noticed the irritated expression on her features turning into a confused one, their eyes locked and he felt a pang of guilt hitting him to the pit of the stomach, her once lively eyes were shadowed, he could sense that she was tired of living, she was tired of feeling pain, tired of being alone… she had become just like he had been, and it was his fault. He was about to tell her that it was really him, but she didn't give him the time, her eyes rolled back and she collapsed on the floor.

Shin was still sitting on the armchair motionless, he snapped out of the trance when he heard the thud of Faye's body falling to the ground, he was about to go pick her up but decided to let Spike do it… after all it was him she needed now, not anybody else. Spike reached in two fast steps her lying figure and lifted her into his arms, her head rolled into his shoulder and he looked at her pale face partially covered by the long dark strands of hair. His mismatched russet eyes caught sight of her lips moving a bit and moved her head nearer to his neck so he could hear whatever she was mumbling.

"You're not real…" that few words spoken lightly on the skin of his neck gave him a shudder; they were so similar to the ones spoken to him by another woman a few moment before she slipped away, the only difference was that Faye would be still alive after this, she would woke up and it wouldn't be easy for her to accept the reality, to understand that her life and her actions till that day had been conditioned by a lie, a single terrible lie.

"What are you gonna do now?" Shin asked looking as his friend stood with Nemesis' body lying unconscious in his arms.

"I'm taking her home…" he replied walking towards the doorway

"Do you need a car?"

"Nah, the Swordfish will be all right…" Spike's feet touched the floor outside the flat and tuned to the younger man who was still in the living room

"And, Shin… you'd better do something for this door before going to bed…" he said with a small smirk on his thin lips

"I won't be able to sleep, anyway…" he said reaching the lanky green haired man at the entrance "this thing scared me too much…" he handled him the sheathed katana that had almost taken away his life.

"This thing has done a lot more than just scaring many men and women…" he stated recognizing the sword now in his hand as Vicious' weapon. Even if he didn't feel any pain he would have sworn the skin on his palm was getting burned by the cursed katana, the same sword that had almost killed him twice.

"I'd better leave before our sleeping shrew here wakes up… see you, tomorrow" the lanky figure moved from the doorway towards the elevators… there was no way he was going to carry her till the roof.

"Yeah, see you tomorrow…" the brown haired man whispered kicking the broken door lying on the floor, thinking about what he could say to his girlfriend about it.

* * *

Spike had been sitting on the wooden floor of his bedroom for the whole night; his back was aching and his ass had gone numb hours before. A full ashtray laid near him along with a bottle of tequila and a half-full glass of the same liquor; one of his long legs was stretched in front of him, while the other was bent to support his right forearm. The green mop of hair was resting against the mattress of the king sized bed where, unlike the current occupant, he had spent innumerable sleepless nights during the last two months. He opened his dark eyes and cursed when he noticed that his last cigarette had expired between his fingers; he could say it was already morning by the few ray of sunlight that filtered through the badly closed window shutter. 

The ex-bounty hunter turned his head to look at the sleeping figure on his bed, her dark long hair were scattered on her back and partially on her face, covering the peaceful features of her appearance. Faye was lying on her stomach fully clothed in jeans and a black v-necked fitted sweater, Spike had taken care of removing her knee-high boots, which had turned out to be an arduous deed. One of her hands was lying next to her head while the other was somewhere under the pillow; the sedative that Jet had given him really was something potent, she hadn't moved since he had laid her down twelve hours before.

There was something different in her; the longer hair gave her a more mature look, and the different choice of clothing really didn't do justice to the younger skimpy version of her attire; he had never seen her body so covered and it disturbed him. He wanted the half naked Faye back into his life, and not because she was a delightful sight for his eyes, but because that was the Faye Valentine he knew, the one with the fiery piercing emerald eyes, with the careless bitchy attitude, the one with the strong personality who would have never let anyone broke her. He wanted back the stubborn woman who would never listen to anybody, who would have gone after him every time he risked his life on a stupid bounty; she should have been the one rescuing his almost dead body after the showdown with Vicious, at the time he would have bet all he owned on it… but now he knew he would have lost everything.

Spike sighed standing up with some difficulty after discarding the dead cigarette on the ashtray, he turned his gaze to his ex-partner and brushed away some bangs from her cheeks, maybe he had wronged judging her three years before, she wasn't the invincible woman he thought her to be… true, she could have survived death fifty years before, but she was as fragile as any other human being and he should have considered it. He had been the one making her fragile; he had been the one breaking her… it was him who made her become the dark angel she now was… an angel of death.

It was his own fault if the Faye Valentine he knew was no more there, because even if she had been self-centered and bitchy, she had never been cold-hearted and merciless like she now was… one of the things that he envied her was the great value she gave to life, to her it didn't matter how much shit one had gone through in his life, all that mattered was not to die because after death there was nothing more to save. Faye had tried many times to make him understand her philosophy, every single time he had gone on a suicidal mission she was there picking up the pieces, she had been the creator of his second chances, the reason he could have seen Julia one last time before everything crashed down.

"Somewhere inside there you're still alive, Faye… I'll find you" he promised more to himself than to her in a barely audible whisper, then he left the room and closed the door behind him heading for the bathroom.

--------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- ---------------

Faye awoke with a start, her eyes snapping open immediately noticing the unfamiliar surroundings, but she didn't get scared, it happened sometimes to wake up and not recognizing the room, that was how her memories were coming back to her, blurry retails of her past reality invading her current life, like the first time in the shower; sometimes she felt like she was living in two different worlds, the past and the present… just like Spike had. But her reminiscences had never been so real; this time she could smell a strong reek of cigarette and a slight feebler scent of alcohol, even the pillow smelled of something that was familiar to her: cologne.

Slowly she rose on the mattress getting on her knees, she looked around some more and noticed that, even if the bedroom was luxurious, it was quite messy, there were male clothes scattered on the two chairs, some books on the nightstand and a full ashtray with a bottle of liquor on the floor near the bed. The dark haired woman was sure that somebody had been watching her for the night, and she remembered the whole accident at Shin's flat… they probably had caught her and were scared that she could escape.

'_Fools…' _she thought noticing that after all in the end they had left her alone in the room.

The bed squeaked under her weight as she moved to get out of it, but as soon as she moved to stand a sharp pain hit her on the head; her emerald eyes closed and she brought a hand up to her forehead. The tranquilizer they had shot her was having its side effects; she was now sitting on the edge of the bed, elbows on her knees and her head resting on her palms. Faye cautiously reopened her eyes and looked at the feet planted on the parquet; she moved her toes and was relieved that at least the sedative was killing only her head. She was about to try and stand up again when her eyes lost their focus and her head throbbed in pain.

"Fuck…" she muttered under her breath suddenly realizing that in those conditions she wouldn't have escaped from the syndicate's men so easily.

"Not exactly a morning person, unh?" a familiar voice spoke from the door. Faye's eyes turned to the voice ignoring the shooting pain it caused to her brain, and what she saw surely wasn't going to help the headache. Spike Spiegel, or somebody who looked exactly like him, stood in the doorway staring at her with a lopsided grin plastered on his lips. He was wearing a pair of baggy grey pants that he probably wore to sleep and a ridiculous light green t-shirt with some beer advertisement printed on it, he had never been a man of fashion but that really was a disturbing sight.

"How in the hell-" she started to ask but got interrupted by his reply

"No, just listen, Faye… I've been in a coma for the past three years after Shin saved me… I'm the leader of this damn thing now; but it won't last long…" he looked at her for any reaction, but all she did was staring at him with a blank stare then, out of the blue, she let out an amused laugh… she surely had surprised him a lot today.

"At least I hope they've paid you well for having the facial plastic surgery…" Faye said convincing herself that the man in front of her was just a pawn in the torturing game the RD had planned for her

"It's really me, Faye…" the green haired man said taking a step in her direction, unbelieving that she didn't want to recognize him as her long lost partner

"Yeah, and I'm Mother Teresa…" she replied, every word dripping with sarcasm

"Didn't know you were catholic…"

"I'm not, Mr. Whatever-is-your-name…" she kept on challenging him, her emerald glare fixed on his russet eyes. There was a moment of silence before he let a smile graze his features and said

"Looks like I was wrong, you're still a stubborn shrew…"

"And how would you know I was one?" her seductive voice taunted his ears as she arched a perfect eyebrow at his statement. He stared at her, if he wanted to get her back to her senses he needed to strike deeper, he had to remind her who he had been, who she had been, if he waned her to finally recognize him as Spike. He took a few steps to stand in front of her and then in a fluid movement went down to get at eye level with her, the hands supporting his weight planted firmly on the mattress at her sides, he could feel her quickening breath on his lips just like that time years ago.

"Look at my eyes…" his deep voice seemed to have come out directly form those mismatched dark pools she had already got to see from such a close distance the last time she had seen him… no, not him… this man wasn't Spike… Spike was dead.

"Even the _real _Spike got a surgery on his eyes…" she stated matter-of-factly before replying with more force in her voice "Why don't you just kill me? You're wasting your time with this farce, I've tormented myself enough for the past three years… torturing me with this is useless"

Spike just stood there looking into the depths of her emerald eyes, it comforted him that at least she hadn't lost her former stubbornness; she wasn't totally apathetic as he had thought. Her eyes were no more blank like a few moments before, they were starting to shown their true flaming nature and he now knew for sure that Faye Valentine was really still alive inside Nemesis' cold exterior, she was waiting for someone to wake her up, to bring her back to the surface before she drowned into an abyss of hurting memories.

"We were in this same situation" he started calmly "I said that I thought I was watching a dream that I would never awaken from. And that before I knew it, the dream was all over… you told me your memories came back, but you didn't find anybody waiting for you. You asked me why I was throwing my life away and I told you I wasn't going there to die. I was going there to see if I really was alive… and while I walked away I could hear your gun empting into the ceiling" he held their gaze and noticed that she was slowly melting, she was starting to believe him, but nonetheless he continued… you could never be sure with someone like Faye. He stood up her eyes not following his but staring right ahead, through him.

"Do you need me to mention any other episode? I don't know like the first time I came in while you where having a shower and you shot me; the first time you rescued me after I had fallen from the church's rose window; the first time I heard you humming and told you that you sang off key; or the first time I saw you cry while watching the tape from your forgotten past… do I have to continue? That time we were after Mad Pierrot and you tried to hide from me his e-mail 'cause you were worried; when you went after that damn tech sect alone and I came looking for you; or even that time-"

"STOP IT!" she hang her head, violet bangs fell like a curtain on her beautiful face "How-? What-? Why-? Goddamnit there are no fucking questions to ask anymore!" she gripped at the fabric of her jeans tightly, her knuckles turning white from the pressure. She couldn't believe it… he was really there, breathing, talking and wearing that stupid t-shirt that was ruining the atmosphere. She knew she should have gone and dug a hole in the ground where he was buried so she could have seen with her own eyes his inexistent corpse. She had spent three years of hell grieving for her loss, killing for revenge, fantasizing about having him back into her life while he was sleeping somewhere in the same city she had been living.

"You were asleep for all this time; I should have thought about it, I should have never believed to the damn cops… I'm so fucking stupid!" she said to herself bringing a hand to her cheeks wiping some of the tears that had started to flow from her eyes.

"You and I both have made mistakes… we're not stupid… we've just been living in a dark world for far too long and our eyes are not used to the sparkles of light that we sometimes encounter…" he sat down next to her, he really wanted to run his fingers through her long silky hair, to cradle her in his arms and just for a moment find some comfort in each other; but he had never been the emotional type, he just wasn't that kind of guy. So he stayed there looking at the wall opposite him till he felt a smaller hand reaching for his arm, wrapping it around the body next to his and a flash of purple passed in front of his view before he felt a light weight on his lap.

"Just for a moment… I need you to hold me just for a moment" Faye's worn out voice whispered into his neck as she laid her head onto his shoulder and breathed shakily into the nape of his neck, her arms going around him to met on his back where she tightened her grip. He gave her no verbal response, but his strong arms went around her small frame as he inhaled the intoxicating scent of rain and citrus fruits he could smell in her hair.

--------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- ---------------

"I don't care if he's having an audience with the pope! I must talk with Mr. Spiegel now!" the young woman stated to the two guards standing in front of Spike's flat inside the same building where the RD headquarters were located.

"Miss Staenberg, we can't let you in, we've got orders to respect…" said patiently one of the two guys

"Listen, you already know about the party this evening… well, if you let me in I promise I'll take you with me" she promised, the two young members of the criminal organization looked at each other sharing a dubious glare

"And I don't have a protective husband who's waiting me at home tonight…" Beth added in a seductive voice gazing at them over her small reading glasses. The guards took their time considering her petite body clad in a professional grey tailleur, her deep violet eyes captivating them and her auburn hair held in a high ponytail. Her smile was predatory and they gave into the temptation.

"Ok, but-" the other guy accepted before being interrupted

"Don't worry you won't get into trouble, my word… now, please, open!"

--------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- ---------------

Faye and Spike were still in the same position, neither of them had moved even if the moment she had requested was definitely passed; they were too absorbed into their own world to think about the passing time. She was completely lost into the manly essence she could smell onto his skin, cigarette mixed with alcohol and the delicate cologne of the aftershave he had used even on the Bebop; she remembered she loved waking up later and going into the bathroom after he had shaved, being surrounded by that deep scent always made her lightheaded and it was a wonderful way to start the day.

The RD leader didn't felt uncomfortable with her in his arms, actually he hadn't been hugged so many times in his life, he didn't remember sharing affectionate moments with his parents, and when he was with girls it was just for sex; Julia had embraced him a few times but she had always felt distant to him, even in their last encounter he had felt cold in her arms. But maybe it was just that he was so tired for not having sleep during the night that he would have laid down on the bed with her still wrapped in his arms and drifted off into a peaceful sleep, her warm body really was a deadly somniferous. But just when he was closing his eyes the door of his bedroom opened widely.

"Mr. Spiegel, we need to talk about a-" the intruder stopped dead in her tracks, her mouth agape as she stared at the two figures embracing on the bed. Spike had a bored expression on his face as he looked at his secretary; he felt Faye's head moving from his shoulder to take a look at the newly arrived and her arms loosened around his back coming to rest on his shoulders.

"I had a rough night, Beth… what's the problem?" he asked releasing the dark haired ex-bounty huntress from his grip on her waist when she made a move to stand on her own still unsteady legs.

"I didn't mean to interrupt anything, sir… I'm sorry" she apologized already playing in her mind the moment he would have fired her for such an outrageous action, even if it was a little difficult picturing him in such a serious act with the kind of attire he was wearing at the moment.

"You've started out well, girl… don't get scared, kick his ass if it's needed…" Beth turned to the long haired woman standing bare-footed next to Spike; she had never seen her before, but the lady had a strange aura around her, and she seemed quite at ease with the syndicate's leader. The auburn haired girl had heard some voices on Spike's lover, but from what she knew the woman was blonde and mostly she had died years ago, there was not a chance the infamous Julia could be the dark haired lady facing her.

"Don't influence badly my employees, Romani…" he warned her teasingly using her old nickname

"If she arrived here despite the guards, who are surely controlling the entrance, I'm sure she's not so innocent, Goujo…" her reply was fast and effective, and it brought a smirk on his thin lips… it was good having Faye spiting smartass replies at his face again

"Oh about the guards, they're not-" Beth started to say

"Involved in any way, I'm sure about it…" he cut her off sarcastically "by the way, this refined lady is Faye Valentine; whatever comes out of her mouth doesn't have to be taken seriously…" Spike said half joking

"Yeah, sure…" Faye chuckled feeling more relaxed around him after the hug; she reached for her socks on the floor and started putting them on while she listened to their conversation.

"So tell me what you're here for…" he asked standing on his feet

"It's about the party the Red Dragons have organized for your awakening…" she explained calmly

"And when should this thing be held?" Spike asked passing a his fingers through the mess on his hair, and feeling already bored just thinking about having to put on a damn tuxedo and spending a night talking with people he couldn't care less about.

"Tonight…"

"What!" he asked incredulously

"You've signed the papers a month ago, sir… it's not my fault if you didn't read before putting your name on it…" Beth said courageously

"It's different; he never learnt how to read…" the emerald eyed woman smugly replied as she struggled with her black boots' buckles

"Can't we postpone it?" he asked ignoring his partner's remark

"Absolutely not!" the violet eyed secretary stated sure of herself

"If you put it this way I've got to agree, but I need you to take Faye to buy a dress and everything else she needs for the party, and bring five men with you… serious ones, so do not include the guards outside here… ask for Mark and Chris let them choose the other three" Spike ordered naming the guys he trusted the most inside the organization; he knew there were two factions that divided the syndicate: the one more moderate, and the one that still was loyal to Vicious, that even after being decimated by Nemesis' assassinations still refused to accept his leadership.

"Spike, I don't-" Faye tried to speak but her voice was stopped by Spike's

"If I have to go you'll tag along…" he said resolutely and seeing the doubts in her eyes he added

"Besides I can't go there all alone, right?"

**A/N: w**ell, I really hope you liked this sickening long chapter, finally I got to write Spike and Faye in the same scene… it's been long since the last time I wrote something where they _actually_ talked, so if they seem a little OOC bear with me, it will get better (or so I hope…). Don't ask me when next chapter will be out, I plan to finish it for the end of the month, but it could come sooner or even later, so don't get mad at me… and there might be a change of rating in the next chapters, I just hope it won't bother you…

If you want anticipations on the next chapter I can say that there is gonna be a party, our cowboy will met a bald guy who doesn't like him one bit, he will have an argument with Faye, and he also will have to get accustomed to another change in Faye's appearance other than her longer hair... no, Spike, not a third leg…

Spike: oh, c'mon… I'm sure they've all thought about the same thing…

Faye: what about me and a third leg?

Spike: in the next chapter I'm gonna find out you've grown a third leg, right Val?

Me: damn it Spike! I said she's NOT gonna get a third leg!

Faye: I'll be like Gren! That's disgusting!

Spike: what the hell does Gren have to do with this?

Faye: you don't know? Well, he was kinda like an androgynous

Spike: a what!

Faye: he was both male and female; he had those huge boobs and-

Me: ENOUGH, Faye! I believe we all know about Gren; now let him rest in peace…

Faye: but I was just-

Me: you NEVER 'just' do something…

Faye: hey, I haven't talked with Spike for 8 long chapters! What's wrong with you? We were JUST having a civilized conversation for once... and stop being so bossy, remember I still have place in that damned list of mine!

Me: keep this up and you'll really get a third leg…

Faye: are you threatening me, little smelly piece of shit?

Me: I'm JUST warning you, bitch!

Spike: oh, god… there's nothing worse than two PMSing women… I can already feel a headache build up

**Ps:** sorry for the idiotic barter, but I couldn't help it (I got to read a story I have a writer's block for, in hope of putting down some lines and I saw I used to write the A/N in this way… so I got nostalgic) btw I wanted to thank ALL of you for the wonderful reviews, you know how much they mean to me, and I really hope you'll leave a few lines even for this chapter… I've been feeling a little under the weather these days and they would be the best therapy I LOVE YOU ALL GUYS!

oh, and sorry for the mistakes... this chapter hasn't been through beta-reading yet, so sorry if it's a little messed up


	10. My Wings

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Cowboy Bebop…

Notes: I know it's been something like 8 months since last update, but please forgive me… writer's block is a bitch and there's still no cure for it! I swear that if they came up with some magic pills to make it go away, I would buy a wagonload of it. I hope you'll enjoy the chapter even if I'm not so proud of it, I had a completely different idea initially, but it turned out like this, I hope it won't be too boring.

_**Angel's Punishment**_

Chapter 9: My Wings

_2074, Red Dragon's HQ, Tharsis city- Mars-_

"Beth has done a very good job organizing this evening…" Shin said looking around at the crowded hall of the RD headquarters. It had been years since the last time an important event had been hosted inside the walls of the syndicate building. In the past the great occasions were held in luxurious grand hotel, but the smart secretary thought it would have been a waste paying tons of money for another place, when there was such a large space in the building; and on the other hand it was easier to keep in control external threats, such as Nemesis, in a building where the security level was always at the maximum.

'_After all, it's not safe going out of the nest when the wolf is nearby…'_ he thought turning to look at his fiancée.

"Definitely… those canapés are delicious" Maho replied lost in the blissful taste of the food she was having.

"I have a feeling that we'll have a second encounter with those canapés tomorrow morning…" he stated with a tone of voice between the worried and the disgusted, but his dark green eyes betrayed him showing a glint of mockery.

"There's nothing funny in morning sickness, Shin…" her eyes sending daggers at him, before she went back to the buffet. He smiled, he really didn't know what would be of him if there wasn't Maho at his side, if she hadn't been there in the worst moments of his life; maybe he would have gone mad like Vicious, or become an angel of death like Faye.

'_She should be here already… I wonder if Spike wasn't joking when he told me Faye would come along'_ he didn't know why, but Faye's strange delay was getting him anxious. It wasn't normal for a mentally-sane man to care about the woman who had planned to kill him just two days before. Sure, he knew that if something happened to her Spike would be upset; after all she was an old friend and he didn't want him to lose another loved one; but she was still Nemesis, the cold-hearted assassin who had murdered many of his men.

'_Faye… my name's Faye' _

Her words echoed in his mind and the talk he had with her came back to surface; after the shock of his near-death, the explanations he had to give Maho, and the party, he hadn't had many time to think about what she had said to him. Under the cold mask she wore there wasn't a mad woman, a psychotic killer like he had thought for the past three years; Nemesis' alter-ego was just a wounded soul, a girl who had to deal with a great amount of bad things in her life, the apex of it losing the man she loved.

He could understand her; when he lost his brother he had felt like he wanted to kill Vicious and whomever was loyal to him, he wanted to leave the RD, but he knew that he couldn't escape them, they knew everything about him, and they would threaten the lives of the people he cared for; all he could do was stay and wait till somebody stopped Vicious.

"Don't worry, Spike can manage by himself…" Maho's voice woke him out of his thoughts; she had been there when the ex-bounty hunter had expressed his contrariety to meet RD business partners, and her fine ears had heard pretty clearly the lively curses that came out of his mouth when he had been forced to go talking with one of those bosses.

"I'm not thinking about Spike…" Shin replied, immediately regretting his words.

"So what is it? Something you can't tell me?" Maho enquired looking up with her irresistible dark blue eyes.

"I don't know how you'll react… you've been dangerously touchy lately" he knew that he could lie to her about Faye, but eventually she would have met her, and it wouldn't have been good for him if she came to know by someone else who the lavender haired woman really was.

"I have my mood swings in check this evening"

"If you say so… Faye's coming to the party this evening, she should have arrived over an hour ago, but I haven't seen her… so I'm kinda worried" Maho's indigo eyes opened to the size of plates.

"_She's_ coming here! Does he really trust her so much?" she asked incredulous.

"I told you they were partners, Spike knows her better than anyone else… he believes that she'll be safer near him"

"And who thinks about _our_ safety?"

"She won't try anything with so much people around…" Shin tried to explain hoping she would calm down.

"How can we be sure? After all she's a professional killer-"

"I swear that it's just a hobby…" an unfamiliar voice interrupted her. Shin looked up from the deliciousness on his plate and stared mouth agape at the person behind his fiancée. Maho turned to see who had talked and found herself face to face with a woman she had never seen before, even if she had a slight idea on who the stranger might be.

"Faye, I thought-"

"Yeah, I know I'm a bit late, but I had a deadly headache and I had to lie down for a while…" the latest arrived replied.

"Spike is talking with one of our business partners at the moment, but I'll tell him you've arrived if-"

"Don't worry, I'm a big girl… I'm sure he has more important matters to deal with now…"

'_And he said he didn't like being the Dragon's leader…' _Faye thought bitterly, starting to doubt Spike's words about his intention to leave the leadership of the syndicate.

"Actually he wasn't so thrilled to meet this man… I'm sure he'll be happy to see you"

"If you say so…"

While they were talking, Maho was looking at the woman; she was positively shocked, the girl in front of her didn't look like the blood-thirsty killer they told her to be, she looked more like some top model. The few times she had tried to imagine Nemesis in her mind she had envisioned a tall woman, with a well built body, lots of scars and a intimidating face; but the woman she was looking at was anything but scary and her body was lithe and flawless, a part from a nearly 2 inches long healing cut on her right bicep. She could almost say it didn't feel awkward standing near her, even Shin talked with her like she was a friend.

"By the way this is Maho, my fiancée… she'll keep you company till I get Spike" Shin's voice woke her from the stand-by state and she instinctively extended her hand towards Faye.

"Nice to meet you, Faye…" she said with small smile. Faye looked down at the slender hand that was offered to her, this Maho seemed a good girl, and thinking that the day before she was about to kill her man, Faye felt a wave of nausea pass her. Maho had the right to doubt of her, how could you trust a bloody killer?

"Nice to meet you, too…"

-------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- --------

"Ass-kisser…" Spike muttered to himself having finally managed to scroll off the annoying short man who had been talking to him for the past forty-five minutes. The infuriating dwarf had a non-stop conference about how better it was now that Vicious was dead, saying that the silver haired man had wanted too much money from the Red-Eye dealing and had threatened his life a lot of times.

He was the boss of a small organization, they controlled the traffic of Red-Eye in a lost town, Spike recognized at first sight that he was just a small fry, his fingers were full of golden rings and he had a nauseating aura of vulgarity. A syndicate leader like Mao, Vicious, Shin or even him would never wear all that jewelry, their strength ad power was in their personality and in their actions, not in what they wore… he was sure that the short man never took a bullet, he had probably never took part into a gunfight, he was just a coward who never got his hands into the blood of his victims.

He quickened his pace, he wanted to reach Faye as soon as possible; a few moments before he had seen Shin in the distance gesturing him that she was finally there, Spike had waved his hand to let him know he was arriving and Shin had nodded going back to he bar. He had looked at the barstool and he had seen Faye sitting with Maho.

The bar was at the opposite side of the hall from where he was, but he could recognize without problems the two womanly figures enjoying a drink, after all they were the only women sitting there. He smiled inwardly, Faye couldn't really stay away from alcoholics and cigarettes, she'd always been a worldly woman.

His smile promptly turned to a frown when he felt a tap on his shoulder; he had an excuse already on his tongue while he moved his head to look at the newly earned nuisance, but was interrupted by the elegant man whom now faced him.

"Finally we met, Mr. Spiegel…" the man said shaking his hand, Spike noticed just from the little strength he had in his hold that the man wasn't another one of those insignificant jerks, they always shook his hand with force or even kissed him, while the man he had in front was not an idiot, he could see that he was somebody like himself, he could read it into his cold eyes, the man in front of him was a killer not just some twit. He had to be an internal, probably somebody recruited by Vicious.

"I'm Maxim Revnik, at the head of the technological department of the Red Dragon" he presented himself. Spike smiled back, _'I just knew he had to be an internal…" _

"It's rare seeing one of you guys…" he replied truthfully.

"We're asocial lab-rats, sir…" he said with a small smile, his dark eyes vibrating with maliciousness and something else Spike couldn't figure out, something that made him uncomfortable… he was definitely one of Vicious' acquisitions.

"So, how are things going with Nemesis?" Maxim asked, wanting to test his leader's sincerity.

"We have still a long way to go before catching her… she's well trained" Spike lied, not liking the interest that Mr. Revnik seemed to have for Faye.

"There're rumors that we've got new information…" the bald man replied, readjusting his glasses with a forefinger.

"Not really…" another lie.

"Well, if there is news our department would be happy to help…"

"_Very_ happy…" the woman, now standing to Maxim side, said with a smile of complicity.

"Oh, Mr. Spiegel, this is Leila Lyndon… she's an essential element to our team, the best hacker I've ever known…"

Spike's lips turned up in a fake smile shaking his hand with the short haired blonde woman, another face he had never seen; she was about his age, a slender figure and she was quite tall for being a woman, she was almost eye-level with him. Her deep chocolate eyes burnt with hate when he heard her voice for the second time.

"I just can't wait to put my hands on Nemesis… the bitch killed my brother two months ago…"

"Nemesis killed your brother?" _'Here's another member to the Nemesis-haters fan club…' _Spike thought with sarcasm.

"She slaughtered him and let him drown in his own blood inside a pool… His name was Lewis, one of our best men. " she explained, her voice strangely cold even as she spoke of a fact that would have caused some emotions in anyone else.

"Let's forget about those bad memories for this evening, Leila… we're here to enjoy ourselves" he looked at her with a stern look.

"Whatever…" she replied, turning her head to another direction.

"Talking about enjoyments… you're not here with a lady, sir?"

"She's having a few words with a friend at the barstool…"

"I don't see any women at the barstool…" Spike's eyes scanned quickly the people waiting for a drink and noticed with disappointment that effectively there were no more women sitting there.

"Looks like she disappeared…" the cold voice of his subordinate stated, not a trace of worry in it… on the other hand Spike would swear there was veil of wicked irony.

"Will you excuse me? You know how women are…"

"Always in need of attentions, I know…" Maxim wrapped his arm around Leila's waist and with a smile said

"See you around, Mr. Spiegel…" Leila said staring as Spike waved his hand to them walking towards where Faye had been.

"He didn't look as an over-protective partner the first time I saw him…" the blonde woman observed staring at Spike's back.

"Anyone would be worried if his woman was rounded by enemies…"

"So you still believe it's _her_…" their eyes meeting in a knowing glance.

"This is the only plausible track we've got in three years… it won't kill us if we follow it"

"Should I look up for other information about her?"

"Yes, but not in the ordinary way…." They had already checked and hacked every archive where there could be information about Miss Valentine, but she was like a ghost, no past, no relatives, and no residence… like a perfect assassin she had no life and left no tracks.

"Do you want me to talk with her?" Leila offered.

"She'd be distrustful with you, but if she is really Nemesis she won't be able to stay away from her weapon too long…"

"I'll go to the gym more often then…"

"You read my mind, honey…"

-------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- --------

_Meanwhile at the bar._

Faye ordered a glass of red wine to the bartender, earning a shocked look from the young lady sitting next to her. Maho wasn't an expert about wines but she knew that alcohol wasn't the best for somebody who wasn't feeling very well, and Faye had said that she had a serious headache for the past hours. Doubts began pooling in her mind, maybe the green eyed woman was lying, maybe she had been planning some tricks on them; perhaps she had been stuffing the building with explosives and was now waiting for the grand finale with fireworks.

"You want something?" she offered to the raven haired woman not understanding the strange glare she was giving her.

"No, thanks… no alcohol for me" Maho shook her head smiling; even if some alcohol into the circulation wouldn't have been a bad idea; she was going mental, her paranoiac mind was creating crazy fantasies and she didn't like it. If she kept looking at Faye as if she was a human-eating alien, the violet haired woman would surely get a bad impression about her.

"Teetotal?" Faye asked sipping at her refined drink.

"No… pregnant…" Maho answered in deadpan; Faye's emerald eyes widened noticeably and she almost chocked her drink, at that Maho couldn't help but grin… after all Faye's behavior was not that of an assassin, she seemed pretty normal, a part from the drinking habit and that thing on her back. Maho couldn't deny that, even if she didn't feel totally at ease in her presence, Faye didn't have a threatening aura around her; maybe if they had met in a different occasion they could have been friends.

"So are you from Mars, too?" she asked now eager to know something about her, but not wanting to touch subjects concerning the present time.

"No, I was born in Singapore…"Faye replied, glad that for once she didn't have to use her fantasy to answer those simple questions. The memories that had finally come back to her served just for this, to know where she came from… knowing who she had been wasn't important, she had changed too much, and mourning over her past self would be of no use.

"Singapore?" Maho was sure she had never heard of a place with that name.

"Earth…" Faye explained shortly.

"Oh, I thought it was practically uninhabited after the gate accident…"

"Well, there're still a lot of people living there, even if the climate is really inhospitable… but I was born before the gate accident…" she admitted, still unsure of why she was telling to this girl those things about her life.

"You don't look _that_ old…"

"I had an accident and I've been in a cryogenic-tank for over fifty years; I woke up six years ago…"

"Oh, I understand…"

Silence fell between them; Faye knew well that people got silent when she spoke about the cryogenic-sleep, she hadn't spoken about it with many people but it always had the same effect, they never knew what to tell her. Someday in the past she had read that this medical treatment was opposed by many catholic movements because, in their opinion, those people who fooled Death were sinners and they should pay for trying to cheat God's judgment. So she preferred keeping it for herself than having to deal with some fanatic who wanted to 'make her pay for her sin'.

Maho was intently staring at Faye, who was looking at the dancing people with a lost look. She noticed for the first time that Faye's eyes were the same color of Shin's, just a little lighter; the only evident difference was that her eyes seemed tired and sad, the eyes of someone who had shed lots of tears and had seen many awful things. Nobody explained her the causes of Faye's metamorphosis into Nemesis; but by the look in her eyes she could tell that the violet haired woman had been through a lot of shit in her life; and at one point she had probably got tired of it.

"I'm sorry…"

"For what?"

"For what I said before… it's just that…"

"Don't worry, you were right… I'm a killer after all… I should be the one apologizing to you and Shin; you've been overly nice to me, even if I've threatened his life and your happiness"

"We've grown up in a place where kindness was the only thing you can got… and Shin had never lost this Good Samaritan attitude, he always tries to see the best qualities in the people he meets"

"I noticed that…" Faye smiled. Maho was really a nice girl; she would have never thought that people who were involved with the syndicate's men could be like that, but as Maho had said there's something good in everyone. If it wasn't for Shin, Spike would be dead, and she would have never seen him again.

"Hey, girls!"

"Speaking of the devil…" she trailed off jokingly, hearing Shin's voice.

"I saw Spike coming, so I'm taking her away for a dance before the song ends…" the ex-leader said taking Maho's hand and helping her off of her seat.

"Don't you think it'd be better if we waited for him?" the dark haired beauty suggested uncertainly.

"No need to worry, Maho, as I said I'm big enough to stand on my own… go dance, your guy here is impatient"

Faye smiled looking as the couple reached the dancing people; they were a real perfect match, being near them you could almost sense the contentedness that transpired between the two. She had never experienced something like that, for her the word 'love' had always been connected with grief and loneliness, perhaps because the one person she had loved the most hadn't retuned her feelings, or because the people who had cared for her were no longer among the living.

The dark haired woman stood up and reached for her half filled glass; she wasn't in the mood for waiting for Spike, he had never been a punctual person and she needed a cigarette badly. She smoothed down her black silky dress, checked her chest just to make sure that everything was in the right place, and most important covered. Not that she was shy about her body, but it's rather embarrassing when something slip out in front of strangers, she knew it from experience.

"Anyone has a cigarette?" she asked with a saccharine voice to the men sitting at the barstool. They turned to her and stared at her with malicious eyes; one of them didn't hesitate and passed her a pack of cigarettes letting it slide on the smooth surface of the barstool. Faye caught it and smirked triumphantly when she noticed that it was her favorite brand, she took out one and showing him the pack she held in her hand she moved towards the exit; not before showing her gratitude with a seductive grin and a barely audible "Thanks…"

-------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- --------

Spike put his hands in his pockets and tried to appear calm and collected, Faye couldn't have gone far, he looked around the crowd in search of his ex partner, but the only people he found were Shin and Maho moving in rhythm with the slow music on the dance floor. He felt kind of relived; they wouldn't have let her alone if they weren't sure she was safe, they had probably left her with someone trustful. And since she wasn't in the hall, she had probably gone out smoking… bad habits die hard after all.

He was a bit surprised when he found her alone on a balcony, but what surprised him wasn't properly her loneliness, but the work that some tattoo artist had inked on her back. He would have never thought that Faye would want any kind of mark on her body, she had been extremely conceited, and she would go into a tantrum every time she got even a little scratch. Something must have surely changed because she voluntary let somebody trace indelible wings on the perfect skin of her back.

Spike observed that they weren't properly angel's wing, they had something of sinister but nonetheless they were beautifully drawn. The tattoo didn't occupy all of her back, in length it reached her rear end, but a rather large amount of skin along her spine was left untouched by the black ink while some feathers were tattooed on both her shoulder. She had chosen a dress that purposely let her back entirely bare, the black silk fitting her curves perfectly, the two layers of tissue, that covered her chest leaving a cleavage that almost reached her navel, came together behind her neck.

She turned to him with a cigarette in hand, and he couldn't help but admire the work of art that her body was, smooth lines and audacious curves all linked in a perfect proportion. Faye studied him, for the second time in her life she had the occasion to see Spike in a tuxedo; he looked good, but she had always thought that his hair were really incompatible with anything elegant. She loved seeing him in his blue suit, with the sleeves rolled up and the tie carelessly set around his neck; his clothes reflected his personality and attitude, and they adapted perfectly with his lanky body and his lazy movements.

"How did you know it was me?" her voice suddenly broke the silence.

"I can smell a 'Lucky Strike' miles away…" she looked at him, her eyes staring in his irises deeply, and he knew that his answer didn't satisfy her.

"So if I offered you one you would decline…" she said moving her gaze away to the city landscape, remembering that he would only smoke Marlboro.

"You _offering_ _me_ a cig is a once-in-life thing… I cannot refuse" he said reaching for the little pack on the marble railing.

"Have you got a light?" he asked looking curiously as she let one of her hands slid down on her right thigh, reach inside the slit and taking a small metallic object from the thigh holster on her leg. She always kept the small object with her; she didn't want anyone to steal it.

"I thought I would never see this again…" he said smiling at his Zippo, glad that for once she didn't hid a dagger in the holster.

"The cops wouldn't have needed it, so I just took it…" they stood in silence for a few minutes.

"…I've bribed Ed…" he answered to her initial question.

"She was never the secret-keeper par excellence…"

"It's been more difficult than what you think…" he admitted toying with the lighter in his hand like he had done many times before.

"…"

"She was scared that I would hurt you… once again"

Faye tensed, she could sense that he wanted to take their talk on a different level; his voice had assumed a deeper tone, something he usually did when they got on serious matters. She could hear in his tone a hint of something, she couldn't say if it was an attempt at apologize or if he was asking for some kind of explanation.

She knew that sooner or later they would have to talk about the past, about that night three years before when everything changed; that night when he had hurt her spirit so deep that it had left an indelible scar. Whatever he meant with that sentence she wasn't ready for replying yet, it was too soon, her mind had still to get used to the fact that Spike was there, smoking near her like they had done many times before, staring in the distance in complete silence, or sharing a few words about random things.

She had loved those moments of pure quiet in the past; after a bounty gone badly or following one of their bickering he would reach her on the deck, ask for a cigarette and sit near her watching the expanse of water before their eyes. It was their way to forgive each other; and she remembered well that every time they were sitting like that she had to hide her face behind her raised knees not to let him see the genuine smile that she couldn't suppress.

But now it was different, they weren't on the Bebop, the sea was far from them and mostly the calm that she had been able to sense in the air three years ago, was replaced by an aura of tension and regret; the feeling of easiness and complicity she remembered, was oppressed by the weight of the sadness, the solitude and the anger she had carried inside for the past years. She was aware that the only way to get out of that void she got herself into, was to open up, to let go all the pent up sorrows inside her heart; but she didn't know if she would ever been able to do that, she wasn't even sure if she really wanted to let everything go… she had done it in the past and everything she had got in return were new torments.

"How's Jet?" she asked after a few minutes of silence.

"He's the same old Jet…"

"And the mutt?" Spike chuckled, throwing the butt of his expired cigarette on the plant-pot near him.

"You're not good in avoiding subjects, Faye…"

"I wasn't trying to avoid anything…" she defended, mentally cursing herself for asking about the stupid dog, Spike knew well that she couldn't stand the animal.

"It shouldn't have happened that way…" he said after a pause, his hands finding their way into the pockets of his black trousers.

"What?" she asked turning to look at his profile barely lightened by the street lamps; she noticed how his hair for once seemed to have a plain dark color, and not their unique forest green. Being at his side she could only see one of his eyes, and by the way in which it clearly reflected the light she could say that it was his fake one, the eye of the past.

"When I left… you shouldn't have been there" he replied his face turning so that he could stare into her eyes.

"Do you think it would have hurt less if I didn't see you walk away?" her voice surprisingly didn't waver as she spoke, but she could already feel her throat tightening, and she had to wrap her arms around herself to keep her hands from trembling. She hated when her body would go crazy like that; she was trying with all her might to keep her coolness, not to get overwhelmed by the feelings that were awakening as she looked into his beautiful eyes; but her body just wouldn't listen.

"No, I don't… it's just that I was already feeling responsible for one woman's death… I didn't want to feel guilty for leaving another one behind…"

At that Faye didn't know how to react; he was confusing her, like he had always done; one moment he was a jackass without a care in the world, the moment after he was a knight in shining armor, ready to help you out of troubles, obviously always denying he did it because he 'cared'. She didn't know how she should feel: pleased because he had felt bad for leaving her behind, or upset because the guilt he had felt hadn't been enough to stop him.

A cough distracted them from their staring contest and Faye felt almost relieved because she didn't really know what to say next. Spike recognized instantly the figure of his secretary, noticing that dressed up she was definitely a beautiful girl.

"Excuse me, Sir, but before the evening ends you should make your speech…"

"Speech?" Spike repeated not liking the sound of it.

"Well, it's just a formality when a new leader takes over… I've written you one if-" Beth offered.

"I won't need it, Beth… but thanks for the offer" the lanky man replied taking a step in her direction

"Oh, no problem… since Faye told me you were of few words I just thought-" she said looking at Faye, easily recognizing the dress that had taken them almost three hours to choose.

"Don't overdo, you already proved your abilities organizing this thing… thanks again" he said dismissing her and leaving the two women on the balcony alone.

"He has something on his mind…" Faye said looking to the spot where he had been standing.

"You think?"

"I'm sure of it…" Faye said getting the empty glass she had left on the railing.

"I'm sorry for interrupting you two once again… every time I'm looking for him he's disappeared somewhere with you" the secretary admitted

"You didn't interrupt anything…" Faye reassured her, silently grateful for her apparition in that moment.

"You seemed to be in the middle of some serious talk…"

"Nothing that we can continue somewhere else…"

-------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- --------

Spike was on a wooden platform, a Dragon carved on the frontal surface. All the people in the room was looking at him and he felt like a teen years old at the annual school-play, he looked over the crowd and easily individuated both Shin, who was with Maho; and Faye, who was still talking with Beth in a corner. He cleared his throat and a moment after he could hear his own voice echo through the hall.

"Well, first off I wanted to thank Shin for saving my life and for taking my place in those three years while I was recovering. I must say that this role has never been one of my aims; I'm not diplomatic and temperate like Mao was. Shin demonstrated to be a great leader, managing to keep together a syndicate that was on the brink of extinction, he was able to stand between the internal factions and to keep down the rumors of Nemesis' killings. We all owe him greatly, and I'm sure Mao would be proud of his work."

From where she was standing Faye smirked knowing that, with a start like that, Spike had something up to his sleeve; while on the other side of the hall Shin was looking at his friend having a bad feeling about what he was going to say next, the palms of his hands sweating uncontrollably.

"That's why I'll unquestionably leave him this position after putting an end to Nemesis' murders; he's the one who has the right to take the role of our leader. I betrayed Mao when he needed me the most, and my presence here would just stir up rebellions, my role in the RD died along with Vicious, I'm just a reminder of a past the Red Dragons need to forget in order to go on."

Shin's eyes went wide, but deep inside himself he already knew that Spike was going to do something of the kind, after all he had warned him.

"I should also thank every one of you for the great work you're doing everyday for the syndicate; and I wanted to remember even all those men we lost by the hands of Nemesis… I know many of them were your friends or even your family; but I'll make sure you'll get your revenge the moment we catch her… that I hope will be soon"

A moment of silence and then the walls echoed with applauses and even some insults towards Nemesis, that Faye tried to ignore.

-------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- --------

_Spike's flat, Tharsis city - Mars_

Later that night the two ex-bounty hunters had finally reached Spike's flat; they had changed in more comfortable clothes and while Faye was in the bathroom taking off her make up, Spike was in the kitchen looking for a bottle of liquor. The refined wines they served at the party hadn't really satisfied his thirst, he had spent too many nights in crappy pubs, downing glasses of strong alcoholics in the past years and was no more used to the low alcoholic level of wine.

Faye returned from the bath and seated herself at the kitchen table, her hair was down to her shoulders and slightly wavy, having been twisted in a French bun for many hours. She was wearing a deep red tank top and black shorts; her quick hand promptly claiming the filled glass on the table as hers while Spike was pouring down some more liquor in his glass. Her emerald eyes looking up to trace his facial features; he hadn't changed one bit, his expression was always between serious and playful, his lips always curved in that trademark ironic semi-smirk.

After all he was still the same lanky cowboy she had fallen for; he hadn't lost his characteristic calm demeanor, his true self always hidden behind an enigmatic mask that only a few people could look past. She had learned that despite what anybody would think Spike wasn't a mysterious fascinating guy, he didn't hide behind a mask to be more intriguing; he just wasn't a straightforward person. Being a martial artist and syndicate member had changed him, he had became defensive not only on the outside but even on the inside, let out his feelings would have meant having a weakness, and in his past situation that would have meant death.

But Faye was sure that actually he wasn't cynical or totally selfish; she remembered how often he would put his life on the line for helping the others, in the past she believed he did it just because he was a bit suicidal, but it didn't took long to understand that it was more like a way to seek redemption for his past, it was his inner self trying to cut the tight ropes in which it was tied.

Spike was changing in a better way, and he needed stability, that was the reason because he wanted to go back to the Bebop, the RD was like a prison for him, it was like burying a part of him all over again. And she would give anything to go back with him as before, to kill time playing solitaire, painting her toenails and pissing him off; but she couldn't, she wasn't that Faye anymore. Her plan was that of putting an end to her life after getting revenge, or at least to change her name and hide in a forgotten planet, somewhere like Callisto, but now that her plan was shattered she couldn't even go back as nothing happened. She felt like she didn't deserve the chance of being with him that Fate was giving her, she was no more the Faye he knew; the stubborn 'shrew woman' was gone, buried alive by her dark side. What remained was just Nemesis.

"I'm leaving this place as soon as possible, you'll never hear about me anymore…" she said in a soft voice, he didn't seem to have heard her for a long time till she finally heard his voice speaking while he sat down on the chair opposite her.

"Do you really think you can escape the Dragons?"

"I've done it for three years without your help…"

"Julia escaped from them for three years, and when she thought she was finally free they were still there...and we know how it ended…"

Julia… that name again. The damn bitch was like a parasite on his mind and heart, she was like a tick: when you think you've got it off of you, it leaves its fucking minuscule head under your skin and most likely will get you an infection. She was six feet under the ground, being eaten by little bugs and still she was one of his first thoughts, when all she had done was fucking with him behind the back of her boyfriend. Faye scolded herself mentally; she had to stop blaming everything on the blonde woman, even if she would never like her, she had to give in and accept the fact that Spike saw in Julia a good person… a perfect person.

"Don't even start comparing me to Julia, Spike… we're opposite. She was persecuted by the man she betrayed, she was their prey; while I'm being hunted merely because they're scared of me, 'cause actually _I'm_ their hunter…"

"The situations may be different, but at the top of it there's the same man…"

"Don't think you're the Prime Mover of the universe around which everything and everybody turn, Spike… I've done many things for you or because of you, this was just for me… it was my choice, it was my revenge, it was my love… not yours, it's never been yours…"

"Faye-"

"Don't _Faye_ me! I don't wanna hear the advice of a man who never listened to anybody… just let me go! Why can't you leave me alone? Three years ago you didn't seem so interested in my well being… so what's different now?"

He didn't respond, he couldn't respond… Three years ago when he left the Bebop, he hadn't listened to anybody, she had exposed herself trying to stop him, she had let her mask fall with the hope that he would change his mind; but he had kept on walking, apparently indifferent to her enraged gunshots and muffled sobs. How could he expect her to give up so easily? He knew well that as for stubbornness she could compete with him as an equal, and if she had decided to leave, he could do very little to stop her.

Her emerald eyes shone with unshed tears, he had already seen that look in her eyes before, and it always took his breath away… Julia's eyes were always cold, covered by a veil of apathy, they never betrayed any feelings; but Faye's had pure fire in them, they shone with passion and determination but even with a bit of desperation and grief. She was asking him to let her be, to go back with the dead, he could sense that she was tired of suffering, worn out by her need for revenge, her blind rage had drained her and all she wanted was peace… her eyes were begging him not to give her fake expectations, to leave her alone with her ghosts forever.

Her love for him had destroyed her, how could he demand her to stay with him? How could he force her to go back to a man who had only hurt her? The man who didn't think twice before leaving everything for a dead woman…it was obvious that she didn't believe him anymore; she had trusted him with her life once, she had been ready to give him everything, but he had refused her and betrayed her faith.

"Can't you see I don't belong here? This is not the right place where I should be, this isn't even the right time… you're dead to me, Spike… like I should be dead to this world… I need to leave, to disappear… I don't have the strength to go on anymore…"

Her voice was soft and low, almost exhausted she seemed calm and collected but he knew that inside she was battling with different emotions. Faye had always been hot tempered, but only about trivial matters. She would scream and bitch for hours over a robbed cigarette or a ruined dress; but when it came to serious or personal matters she always got silent and composed, the only thing that let out her real state of mind were her eyes. Staring into those emerald pools he could feel his willpower weaken, his heart suggesting him that maybe it was really better if he let her go, if he renounced to his plans… his egoism had damaged her enough.

'_Poor thing, she doesn't even imagine what we're gonna do to her as soon as we catch her…'_

'_I really can't wait to be inside of her hearing her screams of pain… I could already smell the sweet scent of her blood…'_

'_I just can't wait to put my hands on Nemesis… the bitch killed my brother two months ago…'_

Leila's words and her determination to avenge her brother came back to Spike's mind, along with the talk he had heard between two of his men some time before. Even though the fractures between the RD members, the efforts for Nemesis' capture were the only element of cohesion, what had kept the organization together for three years, they wouldn't forget her so easily. She would be alone against a syndicate filled with rage and frustrations, she would become their scapegoat. Their strength had always been the persistency, if they couldn't catch her with their skills; they would tire her out always being on her heels, and when she would be at the limit of her physical and mental control they would get her. Just like, after a strenuous chase, the hunter's dogs rouse the fox; even if the fox have always been in charge during the hunt, thanks to its slyness and agility.

"They'll never leave you alone… you've pushed them too far"

She had to understand that if she wanted to free herself from the RD the only way was to let him help her, he had to make sure that nobody, except from Shin, Mark and himself, knew her alias. Till that moment he needed to keep her near, to be sure she was safe… he didn't think he could get over the loss of another person who cared for him. He had to wake her up from this passive state she had fallen into; she had to react, or she would become a living ghost just like him.

Faye fell silent, her thoughts went back to the faces of all the people she killed and the wave of regret came back to a full force; she didn't care if they would follow her to the end of the universe, she just needed to leave that place. Every moment she spent in that building was like an eternity, she was sick of all that men and women smiling kindly at her, believing she was just the newest whore of their boss, completely unaware that they were being friendly with the killer of their colleagues. When she returned their smile she felt like the biggest hypocrite in the solar system, she pitied them, and she felt angry with herself whenever her subconscious made her believe one of those smile could be considered a sign of forgiveness.

"I'll deal with it…" she replied swaying the liquor inside her glass

"Haven't you learned my lesson?" his soft smoky voice inquired when she lifted her gaze to his mismatched irises.

"You're still alive, aren't you?" to everybody else it would have been obvious that it was a rhetoric question; but in Spike's mind that sounded like a real question.

'_I'm going there to see if I'm really alive…' _

He finally had an answer to that question, an affirmative one; but he understood that Faye didn't need an answer; she was just trying to prove her point.

"Yeah, but at what price? I've lost everything …"

"Do you think I haven't?" she replied bitterly.

The ex-cowboy sighed breaking the eye-contact with the dark haired woman sitting opposite to him; he gathered their glasses and got up from the chair, turning to put them in the sink.

"So you've made your choice…" he asked turning on the faucet and quickly washing the two glasses.

"I'm still a stubborn shrew after all…" she smiled sadly, looking at his shoulder blades well evident under his navy blue t-shirt.

"You know Faye, I'm not used to interfere with other people's business… but Shin taught me that caring for someone doesn't mean let them do whatever they want…" She might be stubborn but he wasn't going to let her go without a fight; he didn't like to interfere in other people's lives, but there's a first time for everything.

'_Did he just admit he cares for me?'_ she wondered if her ears hadn't fooled her; maybe she should have left that glass of Jack Daniel's filled.

But she had no time for any speculation because with a feline movement he had blocked her wrists on the table with one hand. His long and strong fingers viciously grasping her slender wrists; she stared at their hands, noticed the contrast between his tanned skin and her milky white complexion, she was mesmerized by the strength of his grasp and knew that any struggle would have been futile. In a few moves he had her out of the chair, his body behind hers as his hands skillfully tied her wrists with a dishtowel he had got from the kitchen.

"You're still a rookie, Romani…" he whispered in her ear as he tested the efficiency of the home-made cuffs.

"Let me go, Spike! I thought you'd understand…" she bit back not liking the way things were turning out.

"I understand you need to leave, but I don't agree on the timing…" his voice stated as he dragged her through the hallway.

"And what do you plan on doing? Keeping me locked up in the bathroom since you believe it's the right moment to let me go!" she was loosing her temper; she had kept calm till now but she had never liked being ordered around.

"Nothing that I haven't done before…" he replied, the smirk evident in his voice.

Now she was seriously taking into consideration to beat the hell out of him; after all he had spent the past years immobilized while she had worked her ass out, training with the katana and learning some essential martial moves. From a logic point of view she should be favored in the fight; she just needed to find a way to free her arms, maybe by tripping him up, and then he would be at her mercy.

"Don't even think about it, Faye… you know you'll never beat me"

She mentally sighed; it seemed that Spike hadn't lost the ability to read her like an open book, she hated it but it was impossible to prevent him. They stopped at the door of his bedroom; at least she was going to spend the night on a comfortable bed instead of a hard toilet bowl. He opened the door, turned on the lights and let her in.

"I believe this is what cops call unlawful restraint… plus locked up in your bedroom I feel like a sex pet" she said looking around the room, noticing the mess of clothes that they had left on the mattress and the floor while changing for the party. In some things they were really alike.

"I'm not locking you up…" he said rummaging through his dresser.

"Wha-?"

"Get on the bed…" he cut her off slamming shut the closet and reaching with two long strides the nightstand.

Faye flopped unceremoniously down on the unmade bed, her arms were starting to hurt from the forced position they were in, plus she was kind of scared by whatever Spike was looking for. If he said he wouldn't lock her up maybe he wanted to drug her with some powerful somniferous like he did the other night, and she wasn't really eager to have a massive headache the next morning.

"What are you looking f-?" she didn't end the question because the answer was now dangling in front of her own eyes.

"Found it!" Spike said with a smirk on his thin lips.

Faye was staring wide eyed at the handcuffs he had gotten out of his nightstand; they weren't the usual cuffs you used on criminals and bounty heads, with their rather long chain they looked more like one of those adult toys used by people who enjoy sadomasochistic games.

"I'd never thought you hid such things in your nightstand…" she taunted, regaining control over the situation.

"Jet trims bonsais in his spare time… I have hobbies too…" Spike replied sitting next to her and untying the dishtowel from her wrists. He made her lie down on the bed before bringing her hands over her head to handcuff her wrists over the headboard.

"This is getting interesting…"

If she couldn't get him with her newest fighting skills maybe some of her old tricks would help her out, and seeing the position she was in, the best she could came out with was the evergreen seduction card; something she'd never tried on Spike Spiegel before.

Spike could feel her words on his very skin, every syllable a puff of air spoken upon the sensitive skin of his neck; and he couldn't help but turning his head to look down in her eyes. He was for a moment trapped into her jade gaze; the dilated pupils gave her irises a darker shade of emerald and the sweet scent of alcohol, that passed through her crimson lips as she breathed, thrilled his senses. In that single moment he felt the strong need to crush his lips against hers, to wipe the taunting smirk she had printed on her lips; he wanted to make clear that he was the one in control, not her.

The dark haired gambler always had that effect on men when they got near her; they weren't attracted by her beauty, by her grace or delicate manners, she wasn't the type of woman that awaken in men a sense of fatherly protectiveness towards her. She was intriguing and tempting because of her wildness, she was totally unpredictable, she was sneaky and selfish like a cat; and her unruly personality awakened in whoever got near her a desire for possession, the need to tame her nature, to try and control her rebellious self. But, unfortunately for her, Spike had learned to control those urges a long time ago.

"It's a pity that I don't mix work with pleasure, Faye…" he said staring directly into her eyes, before standing and leaving her alone in the dark room.

When he closed the door behind his back she kept on staring at the spot where he had been, she knew for sure that if she turned her head the tears that had been pooling under her eyelids would slid out of their hiding place and wet the delicate skin of her cheeks.

Faye closed her eyes and gritted her teeth to suppress the chain of curses that was about to escape her mouth; then she gave an energetic pull on the chain out of frustration, she was angry with herself for even believing she could fool her old partner with her seductive tricks, Spike was not your average man.

"Why am I so fucking stupid!... Why…" her voice whispered before she buried her face in the pillow, attempting to hide and dry the tears of defeat and betrayal that were now streaming down her porcelain face.

-------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- --------

A/N: well, first off, sorry again for the long delay, I have no control over my inspiration and my Muse went off to spend her holidays in some unknown island of the Pacific…so just forgive me please… secondly, as I said before, this chapter got over many changes, I was never satisfied with what I had wrote and I had to rewrite it lots of times. I hope next chapter will be easier…

Here's some information on the next chapter: it'll be called 'Circle of Regrets', Faye will be reflecting over the past three years and have a talk with the good old Zhang, who will help her out with her pangs of conscience… meanwhile our favorite green haired lunkhead will be cursing over useless kinky handcuffs and incompetent syndicate guards; while looking for his 'beloved' shrew woman all over Tharsis… but don't worry it won't take him too long to find her again… he's a space cowboy after all!

And now it's the moment for some funny stuff:

Spike is sitting on the couch taking various objects out of a bag

Spike: oh, here's the collar! I thought I have forgotten it… the leash, and the skimpy black leather outfit, the set of cuffs...

Faye enters the room and notices the strange objects on the coffee-table

Faye: what the hell is all this stuff!

Spike: well, the other day you said-

Faye looks confused: what did I say?

Spike: y- you said you felt like a sex pet, so I thought you might even want to look like one…

Faye reaches the table and starts to pick up the unusual tools

Faye holds up a leather whip: and what is the use for this?

Spike's lips turn up in a malicious smile: don't worry… I'll use it just if you're bad girl…

Faye: you little sadist… I'm gonna show you a good use of it!

Faye throws herself at Spike and starts lashing him

Me: what the hell is happening in here!

Faye: this bastard is just getting what he deserves for being a fucking sadist -every word is underlined by a whip on Spike's helpless form-

Spike: I didn't do anything!

Faye: oh, sure, but it was obvious that you wanted to dress me like a fucking whore and fucking rape me!

Spike tries to protect himself from the violet haired fury sitting on his lap: I was joking, I would never rape you!

Faye has an evil glint in her eyes: shut up, you dirty bitch-fucker…

Me: better leave them alone… Faye seems to be enjoying it --walks off--

Spike's voice is heard in the distance: please stop it! You're scaring me, Faye!

Faye: that's Mistress Faye to you… and now be a good boy and let me put this collar on…


End file.
